Effectiveness of a school-based intervention to increase health knowledge of cardiovascular disease risk factors among rural Mississippi middle school children.
BACKGROUND
Few school-based interventions have been evaluated to assess health awareness among children in rural southern areas. The purpose of this controlled investigation was to increase health awareness among middle school-aged children residing in a racially diverse rural community in Mississippi.


METHODS
This investigation assessed health knowledge before and after a 16-week school-based intervention in 205 fifth-grade students. Height, weight, BMI, body composition, waist circumference, dietary intake, blood lipids and lipoprotein concentrations, blood glucose concentrations, and resting blood pressure were measured to enhance student awareness of cardiovascular disease risk factors. Values in the intervention school were compared with those obtained simultaneously in a control school within the same community.


RESULTS
The school-based intervention was effective in increasing health knowledge in the intervention as compared with the control school. Secondarily, it was effective in improving certain dietary behaviors. Utilizing health care professionals in the classroom to teach students appropriate lifestyles and actually measuring cardiovascular risk factors to increase awareness among students was effective in increasing overall health knowledge.


CONCLUSIONS
Health knowledge of rural adolescents can be increased through partnerships with schools and multidisciplinary teams of health care professionals. Ongoing efforts to reduce childhood obesity and cardiovascular disease risk factors are urgently needed, and information obtained during this investigation may be used in planning school-based interventions in other diverse, rural communities.
Harrell
T Kristopher
TK
School of Pharmacy and the Department of Medicine, Division of Hypertension, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS 39216, USA. kharrell@pharmacy.umsmed.edu
Davy
Brenda M
BM
Stewart
Jimmy L
JL
King
Deborah S
DS
D001837:Body Weights and Measures; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000209:etiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002648:Child; D004032:Diet; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008922:Mississippi; D010865:Pilot Projects; D012307:Risk Factors; D012423:Rural Health; D012572:School Health Services