Coronary heart disease beliefs and misconceptions among cardiac patients and people with chronic illness

What people believe about their illness may affect how they cope with it. It has been suggested that such beliefs may be commonly held within society. This cross-sectional investigation examined the cardiac beliefs and misconceptions among cardiac patients and people with chronic illness. Participants with a noncardiac chronic illness hold similar cardiac misconceptions to people with heart disease (p = 0.58). Both groups showed high agreement on “people with heart disease should take life easy” and “always avoid anything that might bring on angina”. People with chronic illness are more likely than cardiac patients to believe that “once you have had one heart attack, you are bound to have another one”.