[Acceptance of a patient passport in secondary prevention of coronary heart disease].
OBJECTIVE
Over the long term a large percentage of patients exhibit inadequately managed cardiovascular risk factors following an acute cardiac event. It remains unclear whether the patients would accept a health pass and which sociodemographic variables have an effect on the number of its users.


METHODS
437 patients (25% women, 69 +/- 10 years; 75% men 63 +/- 10 years) with diagnosed coronary heart disease were issued a health pass before being discharged from in-patient rehabilitation care. Besides their medical history, the passes contained the patients' latest values for hypertension, glucose, lipids, body mass index (kg/m(2)), and smoking. How many patients actually use the health pass was checked by the patients' physicians after 3, 6, and 12 months. In addition, cardioprotective drugs and cardiac events were logged.


RESULTS
185 (44%) of the patients used the pass continually over the course of one year. These patients tended to be older (> or = 60 years vs. < 60 years, p = 0.023), to be white-collar workers (white-collar vs. blue-collar, p = 0.043), and to have a higher level of education (> 10th class vs. < or = 10th class, p = 0.039) compared to "non-users".


CONCLUSIONS
The acceptance of a passport is low, because fewer than half the patients used it in connection with the secondary prevention of coronary heart disease. Therefore the health pass in its present form did not show up as a useful device in patient care, particularly in single persons and those of a low sociodemographic status.
Völler
H
H
Klinik am See, Kardiologie, Fachklinik für Herz- und Kreislauferkrankungen, Rüdersdorf bei Berlin. heinz.voeller@klinikamsee.com
Dovifat
C
C
Schulz
T
T
Lötsch
M
M
Müller-Nordhorn
J
J
Bestehorn
K
K
Dissmann
R
R
Willich
S N
SN
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control*; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008499:Medical Records; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D033283:Patient Access to Records; D012307:Risk Factors; D055502:Secondary Prevention