Factors Associated with Delayed Hospital Arrival of Patients Presenting with Acute Myocardial Infarction: A...

Delay in seeking medical care of the patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) could affect the outcome. Therefore, it is important to recognize and reduce pre-hospital in initiating treatment of these patients. The objective of the study was to evaluate the factors associated with delayed hospital arrival of patients with AMI. This cross-sectional study was carried out among 385 patients with AMI attended in the Department of Cardiology, Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH), Dhaka, Bangladesh. The delay in arrival to the hospital was recorded along with socio-demographic data, conditions of the patients during onset and other relevant data. The mean age of the patients 59.7±9.9 years with a male-female ratio of 2.4:1. About 22% of patients with AMI arrived at the hospital within 6 hours of symptoms onset and only around 13% arrived within 2 hours of onset of symptoms. Comparatively younger (p=0.037), unmarried (p=0.008) and Muslim (p=0.008) patients were more likely to present for hospital care sooner (p=0.037). Patients coming from upper middle class of socioeconomic status (p<0.001) and those with college or post college level of education (p<0.001) were more likely to present earlier for hospital care. Prehospital delay was larger in non-manual worker patients (p<0.001) as well as in patients with onset of chest pain during rest period (p<0.001) and while at home (p<0.001). Pre-hospital delay was shorter in patients with onset of chest pain from 12am to 6am and 6am to 12pm (p<0.001). Lack of awareness of AMI symptoms and benefits of its early treatment, long distance and mode of transport were shown as the most common causes of delayed arrival of patients at hospital (p<0.001). This study has identified the factors associated with AMI in context of Bangladesh. Effective measures including increasing awareness of AMI symptoms should be taken for better outcome of the patients.