Self-management of coronary heart disease in older patients after elective percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.
OBJECTIVE
To explore how older patients self-manage their coronary heart disease (CHD) after undergoing elective percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA).


METHODS
This mixed methods study used a sequential, explanatory design and recruited a convenience sample of patients (n = 93) approximately three months after elective PTCA. The study was conducted in two phases. Quantitative data collected in Phase 1 by means of a self-administered survey were subject to univariate and bivariate analysis. Phase 1 findings informed the purposive sampling for Phase 2 where ten participants were selected from the original sample for an in-depth interview. Qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis. This paper will primarily report the findings from a sub-group of older participants (n = 47) classified as 65 years of age or older.


RESULTS
78.7% (n = 37) of participants indicated that they would manage recurring angina symptoms by taking glyceryl trinitrate and 34% (n = 16) thought that resting would help. Regardless of the duration or severity of the symptoms 40.5% (n = 19) would call their general practitioner or an emergency ambulance for assistance during any recurrence of angina symptoms. Older participants weighed less (P = 0.02) and smoked less (P = 0.01) than their younger counterparts in the study. Age did not seem to affect PTCA patients' likelihood of altering dietary factors such as fruit, vegetable and saturated fat consumption (P = 0.237).


CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that older people in the study were less likely to know how to correctly manage any recurring angina symptoms than their younger counterparts but they had fewer risk factors for CHD. Age was not a factor that influenced participants' likelihood to alter lifestyle factors.
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Care, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Susan
S
Dawkes
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Care, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Graeme D
GD
Smith
Department of Nursing and Community Health, Glasgow Caledonian University, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Lawrie
L
Elliott
Employment Research Institute, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Robert
R
Raeside
School of Health Sciences, University of Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom.
Jayne H
JH
Donaldson
Angina pectoris; Coronary disease; Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty; Self-management