Preventive medicine
-
Preventive medicine · Jan 1992
Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease: 3-year intervention results in boys of 12 years of age.
The intervention group comprised 477 children at the age of 11.8 +/- 0.11 years. The reference group comprised 528 children aged 11.9 +/- 0.12 years. Both groups were drawn on the basis of the selected examination of children from two Moscow districts. The criteria for risk factors involved the upper 5% of the distribution curve for blood pressure, the upper 10% of the distribution curve for cholesterol and triglycerides, the upper 15% of the distribution curve for the Quetelet index, and a positive response to the question on smoking, "Smoke at least once per week or more frequently?" ⋯ The examination at 1 year showed that the children of the intervention district had attained a greater reduction in their levels of total cholesterol, triglycerides, and systolic blood pressure than those of the reference district. High-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels decreased equally in both districts. After 3 years, the effect was retained for cholesterol and systolic blood pressure; the level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol showed a greater reduction in district 2. After 1 year, the increase in the Quetelet index among the intervention sample (district 1) became less. After 3 years of intervention, the smoking accretion rate had decreased by 8.9% in district 1 (intervention) compared with that in district 2 (reference).
-
Preventive medicine · Jan 1992
Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical TrialThe Heart Smart cardiovascular school health promotion: behavior correlates of risk factor change.
A growing awareness of health promotion and positive lifestyle change, coupled with the knowledge that cardiovascular risk has its origins in childhood, has led to the development of health promotion programs in the elementary school. While most school-based programs target specific behaviors or enlist singular intervention modalities, the Heart Smart cardiovascular school health promotion targeted the total school environment with a multidisciplinary approach to prompt the school's varied institutions to implement changes in curriculum, school lunch, and physical education. ⋯ Observations indicate a relationship between behavior change and physiologic changes achieved in a total school health promotion to reduce cardiovascular risk.