急性心肌梗塞婦女發病至求醫之經驗

Woman's help-seeking experience of onset of symptoms of acute myocardial infarction

本研究採用田野研究法，探索急性心肌梗塞婦女的求醫經驗。包括婦女的心肌梗塞症狀、對症狀的解釋、對症狀的處理及就醫原因等經驗之探討。本研究共針對10名就醫之急性心肌梗塞婦女進行深度訪談。資料分析結果顯示，急性心肌梗塞婦女所描述之症狀與現今診斷標準有別，且因其症狀解釋導致其自療行為，延遲了就醫時間。此外，婦女自主性低，因此就醫過程常需依賴他人，使得心肌梗塞婦女的求醫經驗更加複雜。

This field study was used to explore women's experience at the onset of acute myocardial infarction including the presence, the description and the management of symptoms, and the reasons of seeking medical help. The findings of this study indicated that females' narratives of the symptom were different from the diagnosis system adopted from the western likely to cause the delay of medical help. In addition, the illness narratives of the participants derived from interviews revealed the reality that women with MI did not have enough autonomy in seeking medical help.