Abstract

Objective: to describe the knowledge referred by relatives of subjects with cardiovascular disease prior to attending an educational workshop. Materials and methods: descriptive study in 103 relatives of patients with cardiovascular disease, who participated in educational workshops related to coronary disease between March and August 2013. The workshops were the following: 1. Coronary disease; 2. Exercise in cardiovascular disease; 3. Adherence to medications and 4. Psychosocial factors and cardiovascular disease. Differences were compared between proportion of subjects with informal and formal knowledge in each workshop. Results: 103 relatives participated in the workshop (80% women, average age 49 ± 1.55 years). 39% report having no knowledge about the subject to be treated. 28% do have knowledge about the subject and get it from informal sources such as the internet, newspapers or magazines. There was a significantly higher proportion of subjects with informal knowledge about exercise and medication adherence. Conclusions: these results show that: there is little formal knowledge of cardiovascular disease and the management of its risk factors, and high level of support of the female sex. The need to educate, reinforce and clarify knowledge to improve adherence to treatment and the prevention of new cardiovascular events, is an important work of nursing, which should be developed paying special attention to the patient’s family environment.