Key result
Women with AMI minimize symptoms and delay care due to age-related beliefs and social roles.
Why the study?
Women experiencing acute myocardial infarction report diverse symptoms often attributed to noncardiac causes, which together with family responsibilities and social influences may delay timely healthcare seeking.
Healthcare seeking after myocardial infarction in women is significantly shaped by age-related beliefs, social roles, and relational contexts, highlighting the need for age-sensitive psychoeducational interventions.
Age-specific beliefs may delay care-seeking in women with MI; hypothesis-generating for targeted interventions in prospective studies.
BACKGROUND Women experiencing acute myocardial infarction report a broad range of symptoms and interpret them as anxiety, stress, gastrointestinal problems, or chronic conditions. These interpretations, family responsibilities and social influences may delay timely healthcare seeking. OBJECTIVES To explore and compare how younger and older women interpret myocardial infarction symptoms, represent illness, adopt coping strategies, and retrospectively appraise their decisions, using Leventhal's Self-Regulation Model. METHODS A secondary qualitative analysis was conducted on face-to-face interviews with 34 women hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction in two facilities in Campania, Italy. Participants included 17 women aged under 65 and 17 women aged ≥65. Interviews explored actions, thoughts, and emotions from symptom onset to hospital arrival. Transcripts were coded through hermeneutic phenomenology and deductively mapped to threat interpretation, illness representation, coping, and appraisal. Recruitment continued until data saturation, and researcher triangulation supported analytical rigor. RESULTS Both groups minimized symptoms and initially attributed them to noncardiac causes. Younger women linked vague symptoms to anxiety, reflux, or stress and delayed care because of family obligations or fear of hospitals. Older women often normalized pain, adopted fatalistic or spiritual explanations, waited passively, used home remedies, and avoided alarming relatives. Across groups, worsening symptoms and encouragement from relatives or physicians represented decisive turning points toward seeking care. CONCLUSION Healthcare seeking after myocardial infarction is shaped not only by symptom severity, but also by age-related beliefs, emotions, social roles, and relational contexts. Age-sensitive psychoeducational and sociorelational interventions are needed to improve symptom recognition, reduce treatment delays, and strengthen timely responses among women.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Giordano et al. (2026) studied Acute myocardial infarction (n=34). Age (<65 vs ≥65 years) vs. Older women (≥65 years) was evaluated on Symptom interpretation, illness representation, coping, and appraisal. Among 34 women with acute myocardial infarction, both younger (<65 years) and older (≥65 years) groups minimized symptoms and delayed care due to age-related beliefs and social roles.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: