Quasi-experimental evaluation of the Los Angeles Know Your Body program: knowledge, beliefs, and self-reported behaviors

Abstract

In 1981-1982 the Division of Cancer Control (Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles) implemented a Know Your Body program in the Los Angeles and Santa Monica Unified School Districts. The results from this evaluation are based on analyses of over 1,400 elementary school children (ages 9-11 years) from 18 schools who were assigned to one of four comparison groups: (a) Know Your Body curriculum and health screening (N = 688 students/seven schools), (b) Know Your Body health screening only (N = 333 students/three schools), (c) Know Your Body curriculum only (N = 253 students/five schools), and (d) the control group (N = 234 students/three schools). Standardized questionnaires concerning health knowledge, beliefs, and (self-reported) behaviors were group-administered by teachers in January 1981 (pretest) and then again in March 1982 (post-test). The group receiving both the Know Your Body curriculum and the clinical screening scored higher than the control group on four out of six post-test knowledge measures, one out of three belief scales, and one out of four behavioral measures. The curriculum-only group scored higher than the control group on five out of six post-test knowledge measures and on two of three belief scales. The screening-only group did not score significantly higher than the control group on any of the outcome measures. Among children identified during the clinical screening (at pretest) as being at higher risk of developing chronic disease (N = 543), students receiving both the screening and the curriculum (N = 401) scored higher on four out of six knowledge measures and reported significantly lower consumption of both dairy products and high-cholesterol foods than "high-risk" students receiving only the clinical screening (N = 142).