Provision of professional interpreters and Heart School attendance for foreign-born compared with native-born myocardial infarction patients in Sweden

[Display omitted] •What is already known - Interactive patient education, referred to as Heart School, is an important part of cardiac rehabilitation after myocardial infarction and it has been associated with improved outcomes.•What this study adds - The provision of professional interpreters at follow-up visits improved Heart School attendance among foreign-born patients. Attending Heart School was associated with better fulfillment of treatment goals in all patients.•How this study might affect research, practice, and policy – Recommendation to provide professional interpreters for foreign-born patients to improve quality and outcomes. Interactive patient education, referred to as Heart School (HS), is an important part of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) after myocardial infarction (MI), which has been associated with improved outcomes. Little is known about HS attendance among foreign-born patients. The aims were to assess; 1) HS attendance in foreign-born versus native-born patients, 2) the association between the provision of professional interpreters and HS attendance, and 3) secondary prevention goal attainment after MI based on HS attendance. The provision of professional interpreters during post-MI follow-up was assessed by a questionnaire sent to all 78 Swedish CR sites. Patient-specific data was retrieved from the SWEDEHEART registry. The association between the provision of professional interpreters and HS attendance was estimated with logistic regression models. HS attendance and attainment of secondary prevention goals by country of birth were investigated. In total, 8377 patients