Denying the disease
If only we knew what makes people behave the way that they do, we’d be able to solve many of the health-related crises facing our world today: obesity, teenage pregnancy, inactivity, type 2 diabetes, and the list goes on.
Here’s another problem – people with stable angina who have been referred for angiography never receive the diagnostic test. But, why?
This study found that 69% of those studied did not receive the recommended angiograph. That is big! Two reasons come to mind: cost and inconvenience.
But, as a clinical exercise physiologist working in the area of cardiac rehab, I meet many people whose concerns are not about money or convenience, but instead, they deny the possibility of disease, and therefore, do not proceed with diagnostic testing that may bring bad news. It is these people, in addition to any others who have delayed or dismissed the recommendation for angiography, that health professionals need to encourage repetitively, stopping only when the results from this life-saving test are on their desks.
About the Author
Peggy Kraus is a clinical exercise physiologist at Southampton Hospital in New York. She received her Masters degree in Professional Physical Education from New York University and after many years in commercial and corporate fitness settings has been in the cardiac and pulmonary rehab setting now for 10 years. Her job duties include educating rehab patients about the link between exercise, nutrition, and good health. Peggy has been published in IDEA’s Fitness Journal and in AFAA’s American Fitness, and her continuing education course, Atherosclerosis: Causes, Consequences, and Treatments, is offered in CEU4U’s nursing course catalog.
