A nursing intervention: the design and implementation of a cardiovascular health

The design and implementation of a Cardiovascular Health Education Program (CHEP) tailored to meet the needs of adolescents will be discussed. As well, findings concerning the impact of the program on the cardiovascular health knowledge of junior high school adolescents will be reported. The program consisted of seven educational modules implemented within seven of the health classes in one grade eight class of junior high school adolescents (N = 28). The impact of the program was assessed using the Cardiovascular Health Knowledge Questionnaire (CHKQ) (Williams, Arnold & Wynder, 1977) with an experimental and control group. The CHKQ was administered prior to the implementation of the CHEP (pre-test), immediately after its implementation (post-test 1), and four months later (post-test 2). Both the experimental and control groups scored poorly on the pretest. The experimental group mean score significantly improved on post-test 1 (p less than .05) and this improvement was maintained on post-test 2. The control group however did not demonstrate any significant improvement on any of the post-tests. The findings of this study demonstrate that a cardiovascular health education program tailored specifically for adolescents had an impact on the cardiovascular health knowledge of the adolescents in this study. Further research is warranted to assess the impact of the program on adolescent cardiovascular health attitudes and behaviors.