Patients' interpretation of the symptoms of myocardial infarction: implications for cardiac rehabilitation.

Research has shown that patients' models of illness are likely to be different from those of health professionals and that these beliefs may be more important than medical factors in directing the recovery process. Beliefs about myocardial infarction may influence coping with the illness, expectations for recovery, patients' reactions to subsequent cardiac events, morbidity and compliance rates and attendance at rehabilitation courses. This qualitative study explores patients' interpretation of the symptoms of myocardial infarction and their personal theories about the illness. Data collection was undertaken in a coronary care unit, using semi-structured interviews with 50 patients. Ethnographic content analysis was used to develop an insightful description of commonalties in the data. Major categories from the data included: providing a historical context, the metaphor of a heart attack, labelling of symptoms and making sense of the illness experience. Interventions to increase participation in rehabilitation programmes need to take into consideration patients' theories about their illness.