Stress within preventive cardiology

Abstract

Introduction: The mental, physical and social stress and pressure of present day influences the incidence of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Studies suggest that some psycho-social factors significantly increase the risk of CVD. But they are not paid the necessary attention. The goal of the study consisted in ascertaining how citizens assess their own mental health, how they perceive the influence of stress on CVD, how physicians and nurses work with them in the area of stress and how efficient their activity is. Research set and methods: The data ware collected via a non-standardized questionnaire leaded with face-to-face controlled interviews face-to-face. The analysis was carried out by the SASD 1.4 program with 1st degree and 2nd degree sorting. The goodness-of-fit χ2 was applied. The independence test at the level of significance α = 0.05, α = 0.01, α = 0.001 was calculated. We approached 2 306 randomly chosen citizens by quota selection. 314 citizens (13.6 %) refused the participation. The set consisted of 1 992 citizens (86.4 %) aged from 40 to 80 and more years, including 937 (47 %) men and 1055 (53 %) women. The relation of selected sociometric parameters was observed. Results: The citizens aged 40 and more years assess their mental status as good (85 %), at the scale from 6 to 10, (1 the worst, 10 the best mental status). With increasing age, the mental status is assessed as worse at a significantly higher degree (p < 0.001). The mental status is assessed worse as the physical condition, with values 9 and 10. Out of the total number of the citizens approached, 87.9 % agree that stress influences the origination of CVD. Citizens from lower age groups (40–59 years) tend to think it (p < 0.05). Women significantly agree with that opinion (p < 0.05). On the contrary, citizens with the lowest education do not know whether stress has impact on the origination of CVD (p < 0.05). The citizens aged 40 years and more see the main factors influencing the origination of CVD unambiguously in stress. Within education, physicians talk more often to the approached citizens (49.7 %) than general nurses do (34.3 %). However, the results confirm that during preventive activities provided to citizens aged 40 years and more, greater attention is paid to the determinants of healthy nutrition and exercise than to stress and smoking. Only 1/5 (21.8 %) of physicians motivate the citizens in the area of stress. Nurses do it in 12.6 % of cases. Almost ½ of nurses never motivate to related changes. The most citizens approached (87.8 %) considered the information concerning stress reduction useful; citizens with the lowest education constitute an exception (p < 0.001). Conclusion: The citizens approached are aware of the influence of stress on origination and development of CVD, considering it, the most essential influenceable risk factors. Physicians and nurses should not prefer women or men when providing the educational interventions; they should focus more on persons with lower education, on the issues of stress and smoking, and motivate them to changes in order to prevent CVD. The area of sociometric relations, although statistically significant in many cases, should be subject to more in-depth research.