Level of Recommended Heart Attack Knowledge among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Adults in the United States.

Abstract

In this report we examine the level of knowledge about heart attack symptoms and what action to take if a heart attack is suspected among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) adults in the United States using data from the 2014 NHPI-National Health Interview Survey. Analyses include summary statistics to describe levels of heart attack knowledge and multivariate logistic regression to identify characteristics associated with having the recommended heart attack knowledge. Less than half (44.4%) of NHPI adults have the recommended heart attack knowledge. Significant differences in knowledge levels were found based on age; those aged 45-64 years and those aged 65 years and older were 68% and 78% more likely, respectively, to have the recommended heart attack knowledge compared those aged younger than 45 years. The level of recommended heart attack knowledge among NHPI is lower than that of the general population. Improving the heart attack knowledge of all Americans should continue to be a national priority, but efforts to target this group for heart attack knowledge improvement should be made given their high risk for heart attack.