What Do Patients Know About Peripheral Arterial Disease? A Knowledge Questionnaire

The lack of knowledge about Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD) is worryingly high as it triggers and main- tains behaviors of denial, indifference, and non-adherence to therapeutics. Therefore, the aim of this study was to build and assess the reliability and validity of a knowledge questionnaire about PAD (Peripheral Arterial Disease Knowledge Questionnaire - PADKQ).

A longitudinal study was carried out with two evaluations that included a sample of patients with PAD and Intermittent Claudication, with no history of surgical interventions, in follow-up at the vascular surgery consulta- tion. The PADKQ was applied to 114 patients (85% men, with a mean age of 65 years, SD=7.2). Sociodemographic and clinical data were collected from clinical records, and physical activity level (International Physical Activity Questionnaire - IPAQ) and walking impairment (Walking Impairment Questionnaire - WIQ) were evaluated through questionnaires. A 2nd evaluation session took place two weeks after the 1st evaluation session where an educational intervention was performed. Internal consistency, temporal stability, content validity, and convergent validity were performed Results: The sample related results have reflected the good reliability (kr-20=0.775) and validity properties of the PADKQ. This sample showed a high level of knowledge about PAD (10.96 points, SD=3.28, from 0 to 16 possible points), which increased significantly from moment 1 to moment 2 (t= -7.457, p<.001). Only half of the sample considered the disease to be serious and identified smoking habits as one of the risk factors. Patients with higher education were the most physically active.

The PADKQ proved to be a useful, brief, and easy-to-use instrument in health contexts to identify patients' level of knowledge about PAD. Education about PAD increases patients' knowledge about the disease and the greater the knowl- edge about PAD, the greater the practice of physical activity.