Harrell T Kristopher, Davy Brenda M, Stewart Jimmy L, King Deborah S
School of Pharmacy and the Department of Medicine, Division of Hypertension, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS 39216, USA.
South Med J. 2005 Dec;98(12):1173-80. doi: 10.1097/01.smj.0000182499.59715.07.
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.
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.
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.
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.
很少有以学校为基础的干预措施被评估以了解美国南部农村地区儿童的健康意识。这项对照研究的目的是提高居住在密西西比州一个种族多样化农村社区的中学生的健康意识。
本研究在205名五年级学生中，评估了一项为期16周的校内干预前后的健康知识。测量了身高、体重、体重指数、身体成分、腰围、饮食摄入量、血脂和脂蛋白浓度、血糖浓度以及静息血压，以提高学生对心血管疾病危险因素的认识。将干预学校的测量值与同一社区内对照学校同时获得的测量值进行比较。
与对照学校相比，校内干预有效地增加了干预组的健康知识。其次，它有效地改善了某些饮食行为。利用课堂上的医疗保健专业人员教授学生适当的生活方式，并实际测量心血管危险因素以提高学生的认识，有效地增加了整体健康知识。
通过与学校和多学科医疗保健专业团队合作，可以提高农村青少年的健康知识。迫切需要持续努力减少儿童肥胖和心血管疾病危险因素，本次调查获得的信息可用于规划其他多样化农村社区的校内干预措施。
