The American Health Foundation in collaboration with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the American Heart Association and concerned physicians, is engaged in a campaign to alert both the public and the medical profession of the health hazards of elevated blood cholesterol levels. The main thrust of these efforts has been to educate the general public about the importance of knowing their cholesterol level and to provide physicians with the information to advise and treat those patients at-risk for cardiovascular disease. The overall goal of this proposal is the evaluate strategies which will enhance the effectiveness of community based screenings and improve the ability of individuals to seek treatment.
The specific aim of the proposed project is to develop a model intervention system for a community-based serum cholesterol reduction program that will focus on several key components: public awareness, participant recruitment, participant screening, and referral of participants who are at-risk to a health facility for rescreening and appropriate treatment. Specifically, the propose intervention system will be designed: to increase the awareness of the population regarding the importance of knowing their cholesterol levels; to motivate the target population to participate in a cholesterol screening program and; to motivate those participants who are determined to be at-risk to comply with a referral for appropriate intervention. The propose intervention study defines as its primary endpoint of interest the successful referral of at risk individuals for appropriate follow-up. In addition, the tracking system developed for this study will enable the rescreening of at-risk participants one year later to determine if their risk status has been changed. The proposed project will be carried out in three phases. The initial phase, months 1-6 of the project, will involve the development of the model intervention system. The second phase, months 7-24 of the project, will involve the application of this model to a defined target population and the systematic evaluation of this system in terms of its overall efficacy and appropriateness for various population subgroups (e.g. black, low income, etc.). Phase three, months 24-36, will involve a follow-up of participants compliances and rescreening of participants identified at-risk.
