Preventive medicine
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Preventive medicine · Jan 1990
Social class disparities in risk factors for disease: eight-year prevalence patterns by level of education.
This article examines the associations between education, a primary indicator of social class, and six risk factors for disease. Data are presented on a sample of 3,349 individuals ages 25-74 years who participated in one of four cross-sectional surveys conducted by the Stanford Five-City Project between 1979 and 1986. The six risk factors examined are knowledge about health, cigarette smoking, hypertension, serum cholesterol, body mass index, and height. ⋯ Furthermore, all associations remained highly significant after controlling for income and occupation, two other indicators of social class. When a summary-adjusted risk score was plotted against year of survey for the five education levels, a gradient of effect was observed where each progressive education level showed a decrease in total risk score. This gradient was replicated in all four cross-sectional surveys, providing evidence for the consistency of the findings over time.
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The progress to the current era of preventive cardiology covers a period of more than 40 years, beginning with epidemiological studies on coronary heart disease and other forms of atherosclerotic disease and related factors and progressing through prevention trials and community demonstration projects to the actual implementation of preventive measures by combined population and high-risk strategies. The scientists of the United States have played a leading role in the data collection which forms the scientific basis for preventive cardiology and the fruitful collaboration in the United States between the scientists and governmental, as well as nongovernmental, organizations in the implementation of preventive cardiology has served as a good example for other countries. ⋯ The rapid progress in preventive cardiology during the past 4 years, since the 1st International Conference of Preventive Cardiology, has been dominated by a "snowballing" movement toward more intensive application of cholesterol-lowering measures at both the population and the individual level. Promising progress has also been made in the field of nonpharmacological control of elevated blood pressure.
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Preventive medicine · Jan 1990
Primary prevention of cardiovascular diseases in childhood: changes in serum total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein, and body mass index after 2 years of intervention in Jerusalem schoolchildren age 7-9 years.
A school health education and promotion program, the Israeli version of the American Health Foundation's "Know Your Body" program, was developed by the Department of Public Health of the Municipality of Jerusalem in 1983. Eight experimental and eight control schools participated in this cohort study of Arab and Jewish first-grade children. After the first 2 years of intervention, comparison of experimental and control groups showed a significant increase in serum high density lipoproteins among Jewish children and a decrease in serum total cholesterol and body mass index among both Jewish and Arab children. These results indicate that changes in cardiovascular disease risk factors such as blood total cholesterol, high density lipoproteins, and body mass index are possible after a health education program is introduced to first-grade students for a relatively short period of time.