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. 2016 Jan-Feb;68(1):43-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.ihj.2015.10.302. Epub 2016 Jan 11.

Cardiovascular health awareness and the effect of an educational intervention on school-aged children in a rural district of India

Madhab Ray  1 , Santanu Guha  2 , Meghna Ray  3 , Anita Kundu  4 , Bipasha Ray  5 , Kaushik Kundu  6 , Santanu Goswami  7 , Deepak L Bhatt  8 , Harry P Selker  9 , Robert J Goldberg  10
Affiliations

Cardiovascular health awareness and the effect of an educational intervention on school-aged children in a rural district of India

Madhab Ray et al. Indian Heart J. 2016 Jan-Feb.

Abstract

Background and objectives: India is the second most populous country in the world and two-thirds of its population is less than 35 years old. This survey was conducted to assess the level of health awareness of cardiovascular disease in adolescent school-aged children 14-16 years old, with the goal of establishing school-based health education and development of heart-healthy lifestyle practices.

Methods: A school-based survey was conducted in the rural district of West Midnapore, India between June and July of 2014. This involved a pre-evaluation of cardiovascular disease (CVD) health awareness, a short presentation on CVD, and a post-evaluation of CVD health awareness.

Results: A total of 2995 students (48% response rate) from 20 schools participated in the survey. The mean age of the students in the study sample was 14.7 years, 46% were male, 53% were in the 9th grade, and the rest were in the 10th grade. After assessing students' awareness in six domains with 20 multiple-choice questions with a maximum score of 100, the mean pre-test score was 41.1 (SD±10.5) and the mean post-test score was 48.1 (SD±16.9) (p<0.001).

Conclusions: Awareness of CVD and its risk factors was far from optimal among the adolescent school-aged children in this study. A school-based educational program may help improve awareness of CVD and reduce the future disease burden in the community. The results of this study may be useful in formulating a nationwide school health program to deal with the emerging epidemic of CVD in countries such as India.

Keywords: Cardiovascular disease prevention; Health awareness; Risk factors; School health program; Survey.

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