Health Research

Running head: HEALTH RESEARCH
Health research
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Author’s note

1HEALTH RESEARCH
Background information:
Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a chronic disease condition associated with narrowing
of the coronary artery, the blood vessel that supplies oxygen and blood to the heart and reduction
in blood flow to the heart because of plaque build-up. The risk of CHD is mainly increasing in
developing and transitional countries and the burden of the disease is estimated from the fact that
the prevalence of CHD is going to increase to 82 million DALY (Disability-adjusted life year) in
2020 compared to 47 million in 1990 (World Health Organization, 2018). The main reason
behind increase in risk of CHD in developed countries includes impact of lifestyle changes,
urbanization and increasing longevity. In case of Australia, about 6, 43, 000 adults were
diagnosed with CHD in 2014-2015 and it was mainly caused by preventable risk factors like
poor nutrition, obesity, smoking, physical inactivity and high blood cholesterol level (Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare 2016).
Mosleh and Almalik (2016) suggest that prevention of CHD is dependent on patient’s
understanding about the condition, risk factors and benefits of lifestyle modification. As patients
diagnosed with diabetes are expected to adopt healthy behaviour and adhere to prescribed
medications, exploring patient’s illness perception and belief is important. Evaluation illness
perception is also importance to predict patient’s capacity to cope and develop interventions to
promote self-management in chronic disease. Another advantage of exploring health perception
and beliefs is that it may help to self-efficacy and confidence of people in managing their own
health state (Kale et al., 2015). Hence, unawareness of the risk factors of CHD and poor health
behaviour is the main cause behind CHD. Investigation of the level of knowledge in people
about CHD may help to understand type of education needed by people and implement
appropriate preventive step to control rate of CHD.