Background: The aim of the present study was to determine whether certain background factors such as gender, education and social status were associated with an individual's knowledge of coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors.
Design: A questionnaire survey.
Methods: A questionnaire survey designed to evaluate participants' general knowledge about the risk factors for CHD was used. A total of 1011 50-year-old individuals (457 men and 554 women) from 34 Health Care Centers participated in the study.
Results: Knowledge about CHD risk factors was significantly poorer in men than in women. Low education and low socio-economic status were other factors related to poor knowledge of CHD risk factors.
Conclusion: This study showed that men with low educational level and low socio-economic status had inadequate information about the risk factors involved in CHD.
The aim of the present study was to examine how personal experience of illness and family history of cardiovascular disease (CVD), adjusted for gender, education and nationality, affects risk behaviour. Subjects were 2054 men and women of age 50 from two countries, Sweden (n=1011) and Poland (n=1043), who were recruited from screening program in primary health care. Family history, personal experience and risk behaviours (smoking habits, exercise habits, BMI-level) were self-reported. The results show that smoking behaviour is affected by personal experience of illness but not by family history of CVD. No effects of these variables were found on the remaining risk related variables that were tested in this study. These results suggest that individuals with a personal experience of illness may be inclined to change smoking behaviour more than the average person. Smoking prevention strategies may thus benefit from targeting this group in particular.
One thousand and twenty Polish men and women and 1,011 Swedish men and women aged 50 and recruited through primary health care took part in a survey relating to their knowledge of health-related behaviour, attitudes to health-related behaviour and self-reported risk behaviour. The results reveal that Poles know as much about cardiovascular risk factors as Swedes, but that Swedes feel that it is more important to change their dietary habits and to influence factors in the working environment to avoid the risk of developing CVD than did Poles. Swedes also displayed less risk behaviour than Poles and more Swedes than Poles had successfully stopped smoking. These findings suggest that differences in stages of health-related behavior that have previously been observed at an individual level may sometimes also be discerned at a national level.
BACKGROUND: Obesity is an important biological risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). AIMS: The main aim of this study was to answer the question whether obese individuals differ from individuals with normal weight with regard to knowledge about risk factors for CVD. A further aim was to replicate previous findings that obese individuals are at higher risk of developing other biological risk factors for CVD. METHOD: Normal weights, BMI<25 kg/m(2) (n=385), and obese, BMI> or =30 kg/m(2) (n=159), individuals were identified from a screening program conducted among 50-year-old inhabitants of the County of Västmanland, Sweden. Participants answered questions regarding their gender, level of education, and items relating to knowledge about cardiovascular risk factors. Total cholesterol and blood glucose levels, height, weight and blood pressure were measured. RESULTS: Obese individuals did not differ significantly from individuals with a normal weight regarding knowledge of cardiovascular risk factors when education was controlled for. Obesity and low level of education are associated with other risk factors for CVD such as high blood pressure and high serum cholesterol. CONCLUSION: Obese individuals are at an increased risk of developing other risk factors for CVD but are just as knowledgeable about risk factors for CVD as normal weighting individuals.