When a person suddenly becomes the victim of a life-threatening health crisis, how quickly they seek medical attention can determine how the severity of their condition escalates and can sometimes be the difference between life and death.

To find out if there was a way to determine how quickly a person would call for help, researchers at the University of Oklahoma (OU) found numeracy assessments can predict who is at a greater risk for decision delay when experiencing a heart attack.

The researchers used numeracy, sometimes called "mathematical literacy," in this study because it is closely related to general decision-making skills and the ability to understand risk-taking. The study was published in the journal Annals of Behavioral Medicine and was led by Edward Cokely, PhD, a presidential research professor at the OU College of Arts and Sciences and National Institute for Risk & Resilience.

Cokely and his team studied more than 100 people who had experienced acute coronary syndrome within five days. Participants answered a questionnaire that measured numeracy, decision delay and other factors, including anxiety, depression, knowledge and demographics.

Questionnaire results showed that numeracy assessments could predict which patients were at greater risk for a life-threatening decision delay.

Low patient numeracy was associated with a longer decision delay, which consequently showed higher odds of positive troponin, a protein that signals heart damage. Patients with high numeracy were shown to be about four times as likely to seek medical attention within the first hour after experiencing symptoms, which increases the chance of survival by 50 percent.

"We have better insights as to why people do not go to the hospitals, so now we have to find a way to empower these people,” Cokely said in a statement. “Asking specific questions and creating individualized plans or interventions could reduce a person's risk in the future.”