Operation Sunday School--educating caring hearts to be healthy hearts

This project seeks to improve traditional hypertension screening of the black population by developing a community oriented approach that can increase knowledge and involve a new target group--black children--in preventive techniques. To help achieve the educational goals, an anti-hypertensive picture book for black children has been designed. The picture book will be distributed through church Sunday School classes. Several black churches in Chicago that were willing to host hypertension screenings for their congregations were identified; the picture books will be distributed through their Sunday School classes. Medical students, physicians, and members of the Black Nurses Association have been recruited to work collaboratively to introduce the picture book-manual, to instruct children on how to measure blood pressure, and to assist in the initial hypertension screenings at the churches. Funding is needed to print the manual and purchase sphygmomanometer sets for training. With the manual, equipment, and proper instruction of the children, each church will have the manpower to screen its at-risk population as often as possible. Educating black children about hypertension and its detection increases their awareness and provides them with the knowledge to screen adults. The success of this community support system is the exchange of knowledge between children and adults and the constant followup and preventive intervention supplied through a dominant community organization, the black church.