[Knowledge and lifestyles of patients: a survey on patients admitted with acute coronary syndrome in the CCU of an Italian hospital].

Aim And Methods: The lifestyles before hospital admission, knowledge on their illness and lifestyles after the acute coronary event were analysed with questionnaires, in three different samples of patients: a. all the patients admitted for acute coronary event from may 2003 to may 2005 to explore lifestyles before acute coronary event (416 patients) b. all the patients admitted from may 2003 to april 2004 (before the start of health information meetings organised by nurses), to explore the knowledge of the illness and its causes (132 patients) c. a sample of 83 patients followed in day hospital, to explore the lifestyles after the acute coronary event.

Results: Lifestyles before the event. Most patients have incorrect lifestyles: 50% eat cheese every day and never exercise for at least 30 minutes everyday. Even after the acute coronary event, some incorrect lifestyles are still present. Seventy-five percent of patients have incorrect or insufficient knowledge on illness and risk factors at discharge and only 50% is willing to increase the amount of fruit and vegetables in their diet.

Conclusions: Although confirmed by other studies, these results are worrying and call for the systematic adoption of secondary prevention strategies with effective interventions aimed at increasing knowledge and modifying lifestyles.