Medical patients construct schematic representations of illness which may impact on their recovery and adjustment with their medical condition. The purpose of the present study was to examine relationship between the history of myocardial infraction (MI) and illness representations among post-MI patients. One hundred seventy six consecutive patients following MI admitted to the CCU wards were selected. Brief Illness Perception questionnaire (B-IPQ), Beck Depression Inventory and demographic questionnaire were used. Chi-squared test, Student's t-test, MANCOVA and Covariance were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that 30.1% had previous MI. The results of MANCOVA indicated that Significant difference between two groups in B-IPQ scores (F= 2.653, P= 0.025). The results of covariance showed that significant differences in three domains of illness perception including identity (F= 4.776, P= 0.03), consequences (F= 70671, P= 0.006) and timeline (F= 10.092, P= 0.002). However, there were no significant differences in controllability (F=0.165 P= 0.687) and treatability (F=0.26, P=0.611) between two groups. Findings confirmed that the post MI patients with previous MI form more negative illness cognitions than the post MI patients with first MI, that is, they interpreted their MI as a more adverse event. Thus, previous MI may impact on perception of identity, consequences and timeline of MI. However, these findings did not support such effects for perception of controllability and treatability of the disease. Therefore, post MI patients with previous MI likely develop negative schema about some dimensions of illness perception.

Background & Objectives: Recognition of epidemiology of acute myocardial infraction (AMI) in every region could be a need for design the programs for prevention of AMI. In this study we assessed the epidemiology of changes in AMI from 2002-2006 in Birjand (east of Iran).Methods: All of the patients which hospitalized by AMI diagnosis from 2002-2006 years, included in this study. We compared mean of age, gender, location of living, medications used, condition at discharge and cardiac risk factors in this period.Results: From 1233 patients, 880 were male (71.4%). Overall, mean age of patients was 62.2±12.8 years and in five years was increased (from 61.7±13.2 in 2002 to 63.5±12.4 in 2006 & p=0.37). The most risk factors in patients were: Hypertension (HTN) (34.8%), cigarette smoking (32.1%) & dyslipidemia (24%). These risk factors did not show any significantly changes during 5 years. But the the prevalence of HTN (30.9% in 2002 to 38% in 2006, p=0.62) and DM (15.5% in 2002 to 21% in 2006, p=0.23) raised. Cardiac drugs use tended to increase during 5 years, however only this increase about STK & Statin was statistically significant. The hospital mortality rate was decreased in 5 years (11.3%) but it was not statistically significant (p=0.48).Conclusions: Regarding the accelerating the rate of AMI, designing an appropriate prograrme for prevention and modifying cardiac risk factors is recommended.

Background & Aim: Myocardial infarction is a common and dangerous life threatening disease with an impact on quality of life. The present descriptive-analytical study aims to determine quality of life in patients with myocardial infarction referring to Hadjar hospital affiliated to the Shahre-kord University of Medical Sciences.Material & Method: This was a descriptive-analytical study in which 150 patients admitted to cardiac care unit of Hadja hospital within 8 weeks post infarction were selected by non random sampling method. Data were collected through interview, patients’ medical records and patients self report. The tool for collecting data regarding quality of life was SF36 questionnaire. Data were analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics.Results: Findings showed that the mean value of age was 55.7±10.5 and that quality of life in majority of subjects (%53) was fairly favorable. Regarding aspects of quality of life, most patients had fairly favorable general status (physical and psychological health) (%62) and social function (%65). Also, sleep pattern of majority of subjects (%61) was favorable and most of them (62%) had unfavorable physical activity. There was statistically significant correlation between quality of life and variables such as duration of disease (P<0.05), intensity of pain (P<0.05), decline or loss of job function, and the degree of fatigue (P<0.05), but there was no statistically significant relationship between quality of life and other demographics as age, gender, marital status, economic status and occupational status.Conclusion: Because fatigue and pain have some relationship with quality of life in patient with myocardial infarction, health care personnel, spatially nurses should pay attention to dimensions of quality of life when planning care for these patients. Failure to do so may leads to quality of life of patients to be neglected.

Background and Objective: Cardiovascular diseases are among 46% of deaths in Iran. Changing lifestyle is very important for the disease control. If the patients perceive the benefits of preventive behaviours, the barriers to those behaviours will decline and the probability of engaging in the behaviours will increase. This study carried out to determine perceived benefits and barriers of preventive behaviours of relapsed myocardial infraction.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out on 100 patients with a history of myocardial infraction referred to Yazd Cardiovascular Research Center during 2007. A questionnaire was used for data collection which measured perceived benefits of, barriers to preventive behaviours of myocardial infraction relapse and status of those behaviours. Data was analyzed using SPSS-13 and Pearson coefficient and regression tests.Results: Subjects earned a mean score of 30.24 (out of 36) in perceived benefits and 22.07 (out of 68) in perceived barriers and 24.48 (out of 37) in preventive behaviours. Preventive behaviours was positively correlated with net benefit and negatively with perceived barriers.Conclusion: This study showed that in spit of suitable level of perceived benefits of myocardial infraction, but still the perceived barriers are significant enough and therefor removal of barriers to such behaviour are essential.