Contemporary school-aged students' awareness of cardiovascular disease burden and its relationship with risk factors:...

To provide the most updated results on the awareness of school-aged children and adolescents regarding cardiovascular (CV) disease burden and its relationship with CV risk factors.

CardioTOSchool is a school-based program of the Cardioteam Foundation Onlus designed to promote CV health among school aged children and adolescents from 12 to 19 years old in the schools in the Piedmont region of Italy. Our program consists of less than two hours lessons led by young cardiologists or cardiology residents covering CV disease burden and prevention based on the recommendations of the European Society of Cardiology. Before the sessions, students anonymously complete a simple multiple-choice survey.

The questionnaire was administered to schools from January 2021 to June 2024, with a total of 2217 students aged 11 to 21 years completing it. After excluding 11 participants with missing data, the final sample size was 2206 students. 57.9 % of the students identified CV diseases as the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in industrialized countries. 44.6 % believe that classic CV risk factors only impact health after age 40. A significant portion of students do not receive information on this matter.

Among a large contemporary cohort of 2206 school-aged students, 30-40 % of the have poor awareness of CV disease burden and its relationship with CV risk factors and prevention and do not receive information on this matter. An educational intervention is urgently needed. Notably, CVD preventive initiatives targeting school-aged students have the potential to yield significantly greater results than those for adults.

Among a large contemporary cohort of 2206 school-aged students, awareness of cardiovascular disease burden and its relationship with cardiovascular risk factors and prevention is moderately satisfactory.