A longitudinal study of the impact of a school heart health curriculum

This paper presents the findings of a study testing the impact of the Chicago Heart Health Curriculum on the behavior and attitudes towards cardiovascular disease prevention of 325 sixth graders residing in rural, suburban and residential suburban, northeast Ohio regions. Using a pre-test/post-test control group experimental design, data were gathered with a Student Health Questionnaire testing self-reported attitudes and behaviors regarding heart disease factors, at three points in time: 1) Pre-test: before implementation of the Heart Health Curriculum; 2) Post-test: immediately following implementation; and 3) FOLLOW-UP: one year later. Using an analysis of variance procedure, treatment effects were evidenced for only one of the outcome variables, Heart Health Knowledge (F = 26.80, df = 2/638, p less than .00005). Results revealed that while the Chicago Heart Health Curriculum contributed to an increase in cardiovascular knowledge among the sixth graders tested, it did not affect attitudinal/behavioral preference change among the students.