Reliability and Validity of Perceived Heart Risk Factors Scale

© 2017 Annals of Cardiac Anaesthesia | Published by Wolters Kluwer Medknow The Editor, Patients’ beliefs about the causes of cardiovascular disease (i.e., perceived risk factors) are part of the general mental representations of the disease which derived from patients’ health knowledge.[1] According to the health belief model, attitudes and cognitive beliefs of patients and emotional reactions to the illness and treatment can be independently predicted their health behavior,[2] so that the mismatch between actual and perceived risk factors can affect the patient’s cognitions and it may lead to the increased psychological symptoms and negative consequences of the disease.[3‐5] Causal beliefs and perceived risk factors are associated not only with patients’ psychological health and adjustment but also affect adherence to treatment recommendations.[6,7] Since heart risk factors influence the emergence and persistence of the disease and understanding these factors can be effective in the secondary prevention and cardiac rehabilitation,[8] the evaluation of perceived risk factors can be effective in the controlling of illness symptoms.[4,5] Therefore, identifying patients’ perception of disease risk factors is necessary providing appropriate and valid instruments.