Key result
Women with first-time ACS often attribute symptoms to non-cardiac causes, delaying medical help.
Why the study?
Women are more likely to delay medical help-seeking for ACS symptoms, and understanding their symptom experience and response is essential to improve help-seeking behaviors and timely diagnosis and treatment.
Women experiencing first-time ACS often underestimate their symptoms and attribute them to non-cardiac causes, leading to significant prehospital delays in seeking medical care.
Highlights need for targeted symptom education in women; supports prior themes but leaves open effective delay-reduction strategies.
Background Women are more likely to delay medical help-seeking for ACS symptoms. Understanding patients’ experience of the symptoms and their response is essential in improving help-seeking behaviors and timely diagnosis and treatment for ACS. This study aimed to explore women’s experience of ACS, their response to the symptoms, and treatment-seeking decisions. Methods This qualitative descriptive study was conducted in a tertiary referral specialized heart hospital affiliated with Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Participants included 39 women who had experienced ACS for the first time. Results Four main themes emerged from the analysis of interview transcripts: (1) the onset of symptoms, (2) the types of symptoms, (3) response to symptoms and (4) arriving at the hospital. These themes and associated sub-themes explained women’s experience of ACS symptoms, their response to the symptoms, and decision to seek medical help. Conclusions This study identified and discussed factors contributing to the prehospital delay in women and their decision-making to seek medical care for ACS symptoms. The results are consistent with previous research indicating that ACS symptoms in women are somewhat different from men, and women tend to underestimate their symptoms and attribute them to non-cardiac causes. Women should be supported to develop awareness and understanding of ACS symptoms and appreciate the importance of early treatment-seeking in the disease outcomes.
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Asghari et al. (2022) studied Acute coronary syndrome (n=39). Qualitative experience gathering through interviews was evaluated on Understanding women’s experience of ACS symptoms and treatment-seeking behaviors. Women experiencing acute coronary syndrome for the first time often attributed their symptoms to non-cardiac causes, leading to delays in seeking medical help.
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