The 'Heart Smart' program is a comprehensive cardiovascular health promotion intervention designed to reduce risk factors in elementary school children (K-6); no clinical results are reported.
Does the "Heart Smart" cardiovascular health promotion program reduce cardiovascular risk factors in elementary school children?
The paper outlines the design and methodology of the "Heart Smart" school-based cardiovascular health promotion program aimed at reducing risk factors in children.
The Bogalusa Heart Study, an investigation of 8,000 children, has compiled a large data bank on cardiovascular (CV) risk factors in children during the past 12 years. Precursors of heart disease begin at a young age, with many children already possessing one or more known clinical risk factors--hypertension, obesity, and adverse lipoprotein changes. Having obtained data examining the determinants, distributions, interrelationships and trends over time for CV risk factors, a foundation was provided to address additional questions directed toward intervention strategies. "Heart Smart" is a comprehensive, research-based CV health promotion program testing differential effects of a population (public health) strategy versus a high-risk approach within four elementary schools. The major goal of "Heart Smart" is to reduce CV risk factors in children with an intervention to facilitate the adoption of healthful lifestyles. Objectives, intervention modalities, and design and evaluation procedures for children and adults in a total school environment (K-6) are described.
Downey et al. (Sun,) conducted a other in Cardiovascular risk factors. Heart Smart cardiovascular health promotion program vs. Population strategy vs high-risk approach was evaluated on Reduction of cardiovascular risk factors. The 'Heart Smart' program is a comprehensive cardiovascular health promotion intervention designed to reduce risk factors in elementary school children (K-6); no clinical results are reported.