Table 2.
Description of patient-reported health beliefs (n = 242).
| Identification of health beliefs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Perceived susceptibility | If over the next 6 months you don’t change any of your health behaviors related to high cholesterol, what do you think is your chance of having a heart attack in the next year?a | ||
| Very likely | 52 | (21.5) | |
| Likely | 86 | (35.5) | |
| Not likely | 96 | (39.7) | |
| Missing | 8 | (3.3) | |
| Perceived severity | How serious do you think it is to have high cholesterol? | ||
| Very serious | 155 | (64.0) | |
| Serious | 69 | (28.5) | |
| A little serious | 13 | (5.4) | |
| Not at all serious | 2 | (0.8) | |
| Missing | 3 | (1.2) | |
| Perceived barriers | I delay taking medications to avoid having side effects at an inconvenient time. | ||
| Definitely or probably true | 34 | (14.0) | |
| Definitely or probably false | 208 | (86.0) | |
| I get confused about how much medication of each kind to take. | |||
| Definitely or probably true | 21 | (8.7) | |
| Definitely or probably false | 221 | (91.3) | |
| I have too much medication to take | |||
| Definitely or probably true | 77 | (31.8) | |
| Definitely or probably false | 164 | (67.8) | |
| I have trouble remembering what my medications are for. | |||
| Definitely or probably true | 43 | (17.8) | |
| Definitely or probably false | 198 | (81.8) | |
| Missing | 1 | (0.4) | |
| There is no one to help me keep track of when to take my medication. | |||
| Definitely or probably true | 50 | (20.7) | |
| Definitely or probably false | 192 | (79.3) | |
| I forget whether or not I have taken my medication at a particular time. | |||
| Definitely or probably true | 73 | (30.2) | |
| Definitely or probably false | 168 | (69.4) | |
| Missing | 1 | (0.4) | |
| The instructions for how to take my medications are too complicated to understand. | |||
| Definitely or probably true | 9 | (3.7) | |
| Definitely or probably false | 233 | (96.3) | |
| Self-efficacy | On a scale of 1–10, where 1 = not at all confident and 10 = completely confident, how confident are you that you can control your cholesterol? mean (SD) | 8.3 | (2.0) |
| On a scale of 1–10, where 1 = definitely would not like to and 10 = definitely would like to, how much do you want to improve your cholesterol control? mean (SD) (n = 239) | 9.3 | (1.7) | |
a
Unless otherwise noted, number (%) with characteristic is shown.