The objective of this response to RFA NIH-85-HL-19-P is to design and conduct a prospective research study which will identify children at high and low risk for cardiovascular disease and study their nutritional and phyiscal activity behaviors as they relate to cardiovascular (CV) disease. The children, ages three and four at the inception of the study, will be recruited from information acquired from a comprehensive family health history (FHH) which will be used as a part of a total school system blood pressure screening program. The sample of 100 three-and four-year old siblings of the school children will be enrolled into the study. The acquisition of food intake behaviors, physical activity patterns, anthropometric, lipoprotein, and cardiovascular measurements will be tracked for a four-year period using questionnaires, direct observational techniques, and appropriate laboratory measurements. The data collected would then serve as a base for planning future interventional studies. Richmond County, Georgia, the loction for this study, is in a region identified to have a high cardiovascular mortality rate. The public school system is equally populated with black children and white children. The three-and four-year-old siblings of the school children identified by the FHH would be classified into either the higho r low risks groups based upon the presence or absence of heart attacks, and/or treated hypertension of parents and/or grandparents.
The specific aims are: to identify a population of children who are potentially at high or low risk of cardiovascular disease; to compare nutritional status and behaviors to risk status; to compare physical activitiy patterns to risk status; to compare familial behaviors in the high and low risk groups by nutritional, physical activity, anthropmometric, laboratory, and psychosocial measurements of parents and children; and to identify the development of nutritional and physical activity behaviors which may affect cardiovascular risk factors. The goals will be achieved through the use of appropriate sampling techniques, the application and evaluation of questionnaires, direct observational techniques, and appropriate laboratory tests.
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