Abstract 4136277: The Lay Public Misconceives Characteristics of Acute Coronary Syndrome-Related Chest Pain

Introduction: The most common acute coronary syndrome (ACS) symptom is chest pain. Chest pain is an umbrella term more precisely described using words like pressure or tightness. Previous studies have not explored the lay public’s conceptions of ACS-related chest pain. Misconceptions about chest pain make it difficult for individuals to recognize this symptom if they were to experience it, delaying care seeking. Research Question: How does the lay public conceive of ACS-related chest pain? Methods: Participants from across the U.S. were recruited in May and June 2023. Participants completed an online survey including the Chest Pain Conception Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to characterize conceptions of chest pain quality, timing, intensity, and distress. Conceptions of men and women were compared using the independent-samples t -test and Chi-square test. Results: Participants (n=597) were mostly women (n=355; 59.5%) with a mean age of 54.0 years (SD = 11.5). The sample was diverse: White (n=414, 69.2%), Black (n=101; 16.9%), Hispanic or Latina/o/e/x (n=96; 16.1%), and Asian (n=67; 11.2%). Participants often thought of pressure (78.9%), tightness (77.4%), squeezing (75.5%), gripping (72.9%), and heaviness (72.5%) as possible descriptors of ACS-related chest pain. They less often thought of discomfort (48.7%), fullness (16.8%), and indigestion (13.4%). Participants expected ACS-related chest pain to be “intense” and to bother them “a lot,” both with median scores of 4.0 on a 5-point Likert scale. Participants felt that ACS-related chest pain would “often” (median 4.0) occur with activity and “sometimes” (median 3.0) occur at rest. Women were more likely to rate specific descriptors of chest pain (i.e., pressure, tightness) and general descriptors of chest pain (i.e., discomfort, pain) as more likely ACS-related chest pain descriptors than men, (all ps ≤ .05). Women (n=58; 16.3%) were about twice as likely as men (n=22; 9.2%) to endorse indigestion as a possible descriptor of ACS-related chest pain, ( p = .013, OR = 0.52 [95% CI = 0.31-0.87]). Conclusions: As many as 1 in 5 participants did not endorse common descriptors such as pressure and tightness as potentially characterizing ACS-related chest pain. Most believed this symptom would be intense and bother them a lot. They also more often associated ACS-related chest pain with activity than with rest. Clinical and research interventions can target the misconceptions identified in this study.