IMPACT OF A NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN TO REDUCE PATIENT DELAY IN POSSIBLE HEART-ATTACK

In 1989 the National Heart Foundation (NHF) of Australia's Heart Week campaign was directed towards encouraging those with symptoms of possi ble myocardial infarction (MI) to seek help as promptly as possible. T o evaluate its effect, three surveys were conducted of patients admitt ed to 22 coronary care units (CCUs). Two (335 and 221 patients) preced ed and one (253 patients) followed the public education campaign. Duri ng the third survey a subset of patients were asked why they delayed, how long they thought one should wait before seeking help, whether the y were aware of the media campaign and whether this had influenced the ir behaviour. Overall, only 42% of 809 patients sought help within one hour (median delay 1.2 hours). The median time of arrival and the pro portion of patients arriving within one, two and four hours was not al tered after this campaign. Those who admitted to having been aware of the campaign sought help no more promptly. The Heart Week campaign cou ld not be shown to have produced any clinically important change in pa tient delay. Future campaigns will need to be modified in the light of this experience.