Symptoms of acute myocardial infarction: Expectations of a community sample

OBJECTIVE: To identify the lay publicʹs expectations of the symptoms of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). : Street-intercept survey method. G: Four neighborhoods in a large metropolitan area. : One hundred ninety-seven women and 217 men. MENT: The Representation of Heart Attack Symptoms questionnaire (RHAS), a 48-item instrument that identifies subjectsʹ expectations concerning the associated symptoms of AMI and the location, quality, and intensity of the discomfort of AMI. S: The symptoms most individuals expected during AMI included: chest pain, irregular heart beats, inability to move, and shortness of breath. The locations selected as most likely included: middle, left, and right side of the chest, upper and lower back. The most common descriptors of the expected discomfort were “tight,” “pressure,” and “heaviness.” More than 88% of subjects expected the intensity of a heart attack to be at least a 9 on a scale of 0 (No discomfort) to 10 (The most discomfort imagined). SIONS: The lay public have both accurate and inaccurate expectations about the symptoms of AMI.