One in five Aussies fail to name a single MI symptom, ‘alarming’ findings show
Just over half of participants identified chest pain as a symptom, down from about 80% seen 10 years prior
One in five Australians cannot name a single MI symptom, according to a study published 10 years after the demise of a national awareness campaign.
Melbourne researchers say symptom awareness was high or increased during the National Heart Foundation of Australia’s Warning Signs campaign, which ran from 2010-13.
“However, there was a significant downward trend in each year following the campaign period for most symptoms,” they wrote in Heart, Lung and Circulation.
Their study used the foundation’s HeartWatch data, which tracked symptom awareness through quarterly online surveys over the campaign period until September 2020, including almost 102,000 participants aged 30-59.
