Community intervention to lower blood cholesterol: the "Know Your Cholesterol" campaign in Pawtucket, Rhode Island

Sufficient data exist to support approaches to lowering cardiovascular disease risk which target population-wide reductions in elevated blood cholesterol levels. Within the context of a multifactorial cardiovascular disease prevention program, a 2-month cholesterol education campaign was launched to encourage citizens to "Know Your Cholesterol" by attending screening, counseling, and referral events (SCOREs) held throughout the community. These events featured assessment of dietary fat and cholesterol, rapid blood cholesterol analyses with a fingerstick procedure and the Kodak Ektachem DT60, and immediate dietary counseling by trained volunteers. A total of 1439 persons attended 39 SCOREs: nearly 60% were found to have blood cholesterol levels that exceeded recommended goal levels. At a 2-month follow-up of 1040 of these same individuals, 600 had lowered their blood cholesterol level by an average of 29.1 mg/dl. This experience suggests that similarly modeled campaigns may have a significant impact on the distribution of blood cholesterol levels in the entire U.S. population.