The time from symptom onset to reperfusion is a critical determinant of myocardial salvage and clinical outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). This time period could be delayed if people do not seek help promptly and/or if the health system is not efficient in responding quickly and attending to these individuals. The aim of this study was to identify psychological factors associated with pre-hospital delay (PHD) or patients' decisional delay (PDD) in people with an ongoing AMI. A search in PubMed/Medline from 1990 to 2021 with the keywords "pre-hospital delay" OR "prehospital delay" OR "patient delay" OR "decisional delay" OR "care seeking behavior" AND "psychological factors" OR "alexithymia" AND "myocardial infarction" was performed. Thirty-six studies were included, involving 10.389 patients. Wrong appraisal, interpretation and causal beliefs about symptoms, denial of the severity of the symptoms and high levels of alexithymia were found related to longer PHD or PDD. Alexithymia may be an overarching construct that explains the disparate findings of the studies exploring the role of psychological factors in PHD or PDD. Further studies are needed in order to analyse the role of alexithymia in patients with risk factors for AMI to prevent delay.
Keywords: acute myocardial infarction; alexithymia; care-seeking behavior; decisional delay; pre-hospital delay; psychological factors.