Most Malaysians are reactive and not pro-active when it comes to Coronary Heart Disease (CHD), according to the results of the UMMC Love Your Heart Survey 2013, announced today at University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) during the Love Your Heart Day held in conjunction with World Heart Day 2013.
In the survey, 414 patients who suffered from CHD and have undergone Percutaneous Coronary Intervention and stenting were posed questions about their familiarity with CHD, coronary angioplasty and coronary stents in the treatment of the disease. The survey sought to shed light on cardiac risk factors and treatment options as well as patients’ understanding of these issues.
The survey revealed that about 73 percent of respondents had not even performed regular heart health tests before they had been diagnosed with Coronary Heart Disease. Furthermore, 83 percent of respondents had not pro-actively sought out information about coronary stents before.
A total of 328 respondents, or almost 80 percent, did not know the type of stents typically used in performing coronary angioplasty, being unable to identify any of the listed stents in the survey.
Only about 56 respondents could identify the Drug Eluting Stent (DES), which is the current standard of care for the treatment of coronary artery disease.
Next generation stent technologies such as the Dual Therapy Stent (DTS), which addresses the challenges of delayed healing of the coronary artery associated with monotherapy DES, and Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold were completely unfamiliar, with only two and four respondents respectively having heard of it.
On the other hand, 80 percent of respondents understood the importance of taking the two antiplatelet drugs, Aspirin and Plavix, as prescribed by their doctors, with only 83 respondents saying otherwise.
Additionally, the survey also revealed that:
- 66% of respondents were aware that they could suffer from stent thrombosis (heart attack) if they failed to take their two anti-platlet drugs (i.e. Aspirin and Plavix).
- 73% of respondents surveyed knew that stent thrombosis could be fatal.
- 78% of respondents were interested to find out more information about treatment methods of Coronary Heart Disease.
During the Love Your Heart Day at UMMC, members of the public were given free health checks and counseling. The tests included blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure. Talks on heart health, prevention and control were also conducted by UMMC doctors, with the public given the opportunity to participate in a question and answer session.
