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Health and nutrition education in primary schools of Crete: changes in chronic disease risk factors following a 6-year intervention programme

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

Yannis Manios ,
Joanna Moschandreas ,
Christos Hatzis  and
Anthony Kafatos
Yannis Manios
Affiliation:
Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Crete, PO Box 1393, Iraklio, Crete, Greece
Joanna Moschandreas
Affiliation:
Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Crete, PO Box 1393, Iraklio, Crete, Greece
Christos Hatzis
Affiliation:
Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Crete, PO Box 1393, Iraklio, Crete, Greece
Anthony Kafatos*
Affiliation:
Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Crete, PO Box 1393, Iraklio, Crete, Greece
*
*Corresponding author: Professor A. Kafatos, fax +30 81 394 604, email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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The effectiveness of a health and nutrition education programme, in changing certain chronic disease risk factors, was assessed after the 6 years intervention period was completed. The school-based intervention programme was applied to all children registered in the first grade (age 5·5–6·5 years) in 1992 in two counties of Crete, while the children from a third county served as a control group. In order to assess the effectiveness of the intervention, a variety of biological and behavioural parameters were measured before and following completion of the intervention in a randomly selected school-based sample of 602 intervention group (IG) and 444 control group (CG) pupils. At the end of the 6-year period, it was found that biochemical indices generally improved significantly more in the IG compared with the CG (mean change for IG v. CG was -0·27 v. -0·12 mmol/l for total cholesterol (TC); -0·07 v. +0·24 for TC:HDL and -0·13 v. +0·14 for LDL:HDL). Similarly, the changes observed in the anthropometric variables in the two groups were in favour of the IG (+3·68 v. +4·28 kg/m2 for BMI; +2·97 v. +4·47 mm for biceps skinfold). Total energy intake and consumption of total fat and saturated fat increased significantly less in the IG compared with the CG (+747·7 v. 1534·7 kJ (+178·7 v. +366·8 kcal); +5·9 v. +18·8 g and +0·8 v. +5·1 g respectively), while time devoted to leisure time physical activity and cardiovascular run test performance increased significantly more in the IG (+281 v. +174 min/week and +2·5 v. +1·2 stages respectively). The findings of the present study underline the importance of such programmes in health promotion and disease prevention. Although the long-term effects of these programmes can only be assessed by tracking this population through to adolescence and adulthood, these programmes seem to have the potential to lead to a healthier lifestyle and thus a reduction in risk factor levels.

Keywords

Nutrition educationChildrenCardiovascular risk factorsDiet and exercise
Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Nutrition , Volume 88 , Issue 3 , September 2002 , pp. 315 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 2002

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