Our goal is to reduce the risk for the future development of coronary heart disease (CHD) through the favorable modification of risk factor distributions among a population of school children. The primary objective is to evaluate, over a three year period, the degree of maintenance of the previously demonstrated effectiveness of a school-based program known as """"""""Know Your Body"""""""" (KYB).
The specific aims are to reduce the prevalence and incidence of cigarette smoking; and to favorably shift the population distributions of blood pressure, blood lipid levels, body mass indices and cardiovascular fitness. The study will continue to follow longitudinally a population of school children previously participating (Grades four through nine) in a randomly assigned, controlled intervention study. The """"""""Know Your Body"""""""" program was shown to favorably modify the distributions of blood pressure, blood lipid levels and cigarette smoking study, subjects participating in the previous study will be tracked for three more years (Grades ten through twelve) to determine the extent to which the favorable outcomes previously demonstrated are maintained or increased over time after cessation of intervention. Investigations also will be conducted to determine the differential maintenance of effect among various sub-groups of the population. In addition, analyses conducted with control group data will permit investigation of the physiological, genetic and psychosocial determinants of CHD risk factors. Products of the proposed study will be original, evaluated CHD prevention curriculum materials for school grades four through six.
