Information needs and information seeking behavior in patients receiving cardiac rehabilitation

Type of funding sources: None.

In Cardiac Rehabilitation (CR), education is an important element of interventions that aims to reduce the risk of new cardiovascular diseases. Previous research showed that in order to be effective, information provided by medical professionals should be tailored to the information needs of the individual patient. However, knowledge on determinants of specific information needs is scarce. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the variability in information needs among participants and the determinants of information needs on lifestyle behaviour, psychological wellbeing and medication after an acute coronary event or revascularization procedure.

Patients entering the CR program for the first time following myocardial infarction (MI) and / or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or coronary bypass (CABG) were instructed to complete questionnaires on (1) the level and type of information needs about nutrition, physical activity, smoking, psychological well-being and medication, (2) information seeking behaviour and (3) potential determinants of information needs (i.e., socio-demographic characteristics, level of health literacy, illness perceptions, anxiety, depression, type D personality and quality of life).

259 patients were included. The mean age was 65 years, 76% of the study population was male, 58% was diagnosed with MI and 63% undergone a PCI (63%). The majority of patients (63%) indicated the need for information on at least one of the 4 topics (i.e., nutrition, physical activity, medication, psychological well-being), with considerable inter-individual variation. Gender, employment and socio-economic status, level of anxiety and illness perception were found to be significant predictors for the information needs, based on multivariable logistic regression analysis.

This study showed that there was a need for information in the majority of the patients with considerable inter-individual variability with respect to the topics. Whereas diagnosis was not related to the preference for specific information topics, characteristics as gender, employment, socio-economic status, anxiety and illness perception were selected as independent predictors of information needs. These results underline the need for personalized information strategies.