Factors associated with non-attendance at a secondary prevention clinic for cardiac patients

A randomised controlled trial was undertaken to test the effectiveness of a secondary prevention clinic. Secondary prevention programs can improve prognosis after an acute cardiac illness. It is therefore important to encourage high participation rates.

The present study was a post-hoc analysis to identify factors associated with patients' non-attendance at the clinic.

We compared the baseline socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of 83 (73.5% male) non-attending patients and a random sample of 96 (85.4% male) attending patients. Self-reported data were gathered during interviews conducted on an average of 30 months after hospital admission to investigate long-term outcomes of the clinic.

Using logistic regression analysis, we found that non-attendance was significantly and independently associated with being female, being under 60 years of age, having no history of high cholesterol and having no angina prior to the event. In bivariate analyses, non-attendance was also associated with being born overseas and not having private health insurance.

Likely non-attending patients should be identified early and more effective strategies should be devised to facilitate their participation in secondary prevention programs.