Seeking help for chest pain: NIDDM and non-diabetics' responses to three hypothetical scenarios

Seeking medical assistance early during illness is important to decrease the associated morbidity and mortality. A cross sectional survey was carried out to determine how long people with non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDDM), and a group of non-diabetics would wait before seeking medical advice for chest pain. Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 50 diabetics (22 males, 28 females) age range 42 to 81, mean 64.26 +/- 9.78 from the diabetic outpatient clinic of a major hospital, and 51 non-diabetics, (15 males, 35 females) age range 16 to 84, mean 56.28 +/- 21.6 from a suburban general practice. Both groups were most likely to seek help when experiencing severe pain (56% diabetics, 59% non-DM). Previous heart disease was not a major motivating factor in either group. Subjects with previous chest pain would be more likely to seek help early. Females would be more likely to seek help immediately than males for severe chest pain (p < 0.05). The diabetic group were more likely to seek help immediately than the non-diabetic group (p < 0.05). There was a significant difference in potential help seeking for mild chest pain in diabetic subjects between those with previous history of chest pain and those with no history of chest pain (p < 0.05). There was no significant relationship between help-seeking behaviour and diabetes treatment, duration of diabetes or age (p > 0.05). An important implication for nursing was the absence of a significant relationship between previous diabetes education and potential help-seeking behaviour.