Our study allows us to reach significant conclusions regarding
the factors that influence the AMI patients’ decision to seek
hospital health care and is among the few Greek studies (Pipilis
et al. 1995) aiming to investigate the correlation between treatment
delay and several socio-demographic, clinical and proximal
factors. However, this study has some limitations. Specifically, a
number of patients reported suffering from AMI symptoms,
with brief or large periods of relief.
For the purpose of this study,
we assumed that the self-reported onset of AMI was the time of
continuous severe symptoms’ presence, which may have led to
the exclusion of patients with non-specific AMI symptoms and
the restriction of the study sample. Moreover, our study results
lack generalizability as the study sample was taken from two
general hospitals in Greece and, consequently, cannot be considered
representative.