Patient and spouse responses to education early after myocardial infarction

The impact of a post myocardial infarction education programme was assessed by comparing the increase in knowledge of patients and spouses about CHD in two hospitals, one (A) with and the other (B) without such a programme. Subjects completed the same two questionnaires twice, once within 4 days of admission and again within 16 days of leaving hospital. Q1 contained 83 questions about CHD and Q2, consisted of seven questions of immediate practical relevance to their convalescence. When the two hospitals were compared the only significant changes were observed in the responses of spouses and patients from hospital A. Spouses in A increased their scores on Q1 by a mean of 7.13% (p 0.001) in contrast to a fall of 2.01% in B. The mean increase in scores on Q2 for patients in A was 19.3% (p 0.001). It is concluded that an education programme increases the knowledge of patients and spouses but that their learning ability differs. Whilst it is suggested that spouses are included in patient education it appears likely that their educational needs may differ from those of the patient.