BACKGROUND: Reducing patient delay for patients afflicted by an acute myocardial infarction is a task of great complexity, which might be alleviated if more factors that influence this delay could be identified. Although a number of self-reported instruments associated with patient delay exist, none of these taps the content of the appraisal process related to patients' subjective emotions.

AIM: The aim of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire aimed at assessing patients' appraisal, emotions and action tendencies when afflicted by an acute myocardial infarction.

METHODS: An item pool was generated based on themes conceptualized in a recent qualitative study of acute myocardial infarction patients' thoughts, feelings and actions preceding the decision to seek medical care. The 'Think-Aloud Protocol' and test-retest analysis at item level were performed. The modified item pool was administered to 96 patients when treated for acute myocardial infarction. Explorative factor analysis and principal component analysis with the non-linear iterative partial least squares algorithm were performed to examine the underlying factor structure of the items.

RESULTS: The findings indicated three core dimensions corresponding to three subscales, namely, 'symptom appraisal'; 'perceived inability to act'; 'autonomy preservation'. The results demonstrated acceptable measures of reliability and validity CONCLUSIONS: The PA-AMI questionnaire demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties. Assessment of the included core dimensions may contribute to greater understanding of the appraisal processes for patients afflicted by an acute myocardial infarction.