The Effect of a Cardiac Education Program on the Knowledge, Stress, and State Anxiety Levels of First Time Post Myocardial Infarction Patients in a Post Coronary Care Unit

The effect of a cardiac education program in terms of changes in knowledge, state anxiety and stress were examined for persons suffering a myocardial infarction for the first time. In addition, the relationship between stress and trait anxiety and changes in knowledge and state anxiety were examined. A sample of 20 patients were selected from two medium sized hospitals in Southeastern Virginia. Statistically significant differences at the .01 level were found between the means of the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group for knowledge and state anxiety using the t test for dependent groups. The same test showed no significant difference between pretest and posttest scores of levels of stress- for the experimental group or for knowledge, state anxiety or stress for the control group. Pearson\u27s product moment correlation analysis indicated that r =-.65 for the relationship between changes in knowledge and state anxiety for the combined experimental and control group and r =.76 for the relationship between stress and trait anxiety for both groups, the later indicating that a more state oriented instrument might have been more appropriate for use in a short-term evaluative context