LIFESTYLE PATTERNS AMONG PATIENTS WITH CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE

Abstract

Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the world today. Moreover, a steep rise in the incidence of mortality caused by CAD is being experienced in the developing countries.

The chronic degenerative diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer, what we call life-style related diseases, have increased and can be caused by smoking, drinking alcohol, or dietary patterns. Therefore, it is expected that an improvement in life style will contribute to better health status.

Many studies indicated that comprehensive lifestyle changes might be able to bring about regression of even severe coronary atherosclerosis after only one year, without use of lipid-lowering drugs.

This study, which was conducted to explore lifestyle patterns among patients with coronary artery disease, was carried out in the medical wards and cardiac clinics of the Main University Hospital and Shark El-Madina Hospital in Alexandria to select a sample of300 adult patients with different socioeconomic backgrounds.

The study data was gathered by a specially designed Interview Schedule, which was developed based on (HPLP). The interview was covering six areas oflifestyle patterns.