Wang Xueling, Hsu Lily Lihwa
Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai, China.
J Int Med Res. 2013 Feb;41(1):231-8. doi: 10.1177/0300060512474567. Epub 2013 Jan 23.
To investigate treatment-seeking delays in Chinese patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and to compare sex differences in this behaviour.
A descriptive cross-sectional study was undertaken in patients with AMI, admitted to one of three hospitals in Shanghai, China. A treatment-seeking behaviour questionnaire was administered to each patient within 48 h of hospital admission.
In total, 250 patients were included: 159 men and 91 women. The median time for patients with AMI to make a treatment-seeking decision was 130 min. Women took significantly longer to seek treatment than men (240 min versus 120 min). The majority of patients (70.8%) took >1 h to decide to seek treatment. The emergency medical service (EMS) was used by 77 (30.8%) of patients, and these patients had a significantly shorter prehospital delay time than those who transported themselves to hospital. Predictive factors for using the EMS were pain level and rating AMI symptoms as severe.
Chinese patients with AMI had a significant prehospital delay time and women took longer than men to seek treatment. Public awareness of the importance of seeking immediate medical assistance for AMI via the EMS needs to be increased in China.
调查中国急性心肌梗死（AMI）患者寻求治疗的延迟情况，并比较这种行为中的性别差异。
在中国上海的三家医院之一对AMI患者进行了一项描述性横断面研究。在患者入院48小时内对每位患者进行寻求治疗行为问卷调查。
共纳入250例患者，其中男性159例，女性91例。AMI患者做出寻求治疗决定的中位时间为130分钟。女性寻求治疗的时间明显长于男性（240分钟对120分钟）。大多数患者（70.8%）花费超过1小时才决定寻求治疗。77例（30.8%）患者使用了紧急医疗服务（EMS），这些患者的院前延迟时间明显短于自行前往医院的患者。使用EMS的预测因素是疼痛程度和将AMI症状评为严重。
中国AMI患者院前延迟时间显著，女性寻求治疗的时间比男性长。在中国，需要提高公众对通过EMS为AMI立即寻求医疗帮助重要性的认识。
