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Abstract

Preventive health behavior on the part of heart patients is essential to reduce cardiac risk, improve the opportunity for recovery after myocardial infarction (MI), and enhance the patient's likelihood of survival. Since physicians often manage older patients differently than younger ones, it is important to determine whether preventive health advice differs by age. This study of 246 recovering MIpatients has shown that important areas of differences emerge that appear to favor younger patients. These involve preventive behavior information, advice, and physician referrals. Also indicated by the data was that older patients were offered significantlyfewer opportunitiesfor enrollment in cardiac rehabilitation programs and received significantly less instruction in practices that are beneficial to cardiac health. Discriminant function analyses performed on the data identified specif ic referral patterns in which age of patient was a majorfactor. Reasonsfor the discrepant patterns are offered, including the possibility of age-related stereotyping of older heart patients.

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Preventive Health Behavior Advice

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