Background: The time spend for prehospital action and the type of seeking treatment behaviors of MI patients are important. The present study was conducted to answer seeking treatment behaviors at patients with myocardial infarction (MI) in Kashan Shahid Beheshti Hospital.

 Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional case study was conducted on 280 patients with MI during 2006-7. Data were gathered using a questionnaire including 7 questions related to the demographic characteristics of subjects, the time of manifestation of symptoms, the hospitalization history, the initial perception of symptoms, the patient's seeking treatment behaviors and methods using to come to the hospital. The patient's behaviors were categorized in two groups of appropriate and inappropriate.

Results: From a total of 280 samples 73.8% were men (mean age: 61.37±13.34 years) and 26.4% were female (mean age: 67.21±9.97 years). The most revealed behaviors were rest (42.5%), self medication (34.3%) and calling the Emergency Medical Service (22.85%), using sublingual TNG (20.5%), respectively. Only 107 patients had appropriate seeking treatment behaviors. On the other hand, 60 patients displayed inappropriate treatment behaviors. A combination of appropriate and inappropriate seeking treatment behaviors have also reported by 113 patients.

Conclusion: A considerable number of the patients with MI demonstrated inappropriate seeking treatment behavior. Public education would be helpful to reduce the prevalence of the inappropriate behaviors.