Volume 88, Issue 3, September (2002), pp. 315-324 © The Author 2002
doi:10.1079/

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Health and nutrition education in primary schools of Crete: changes in chronic disease risk factors following a 6-year intervention programme

Yannis Manios, Joanna Moschandreas, Christos Hatzis, Anthony Kafatos
Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Crete, PO Box 1393, Iraklio, Crete, Greece

 (Received 21 May 2001–Revised 12 March 2002–Accepted 11 April 2002)

The effectiveness of a health and nutrition education programme, in changing certain chronic disease risk factors, was assessed after the 6 years intervention period was completed. The school-based intervention programme was applied to all children registered in the first grade (age 5·5–6·5 years) in 1992 in two counties of Crete, while the children from a third county served as a control group. In order to assess the effectiveness of the intervention, a variety of biological and behavioural parameters were measured before and following completion of the intervention in a randomly selected school-based sample of 602 intervention group (IG) and 444 control group (CG) pupils. At the end of the 6-year period, it was found that biochemical indices generally improved significantly more in the IG compared with the CG (mean change for IG v. CG was −0·27 v. −0·12 mmol/l for total cholesterol (TC); −0·07 v. +0·24 for TC:HDL and −0·13 v. +0·14 for LDL:HDL). Similarly, the changes observed in the anthropometric variables in the two groups were in favour of the IG (+3·68 v. +4·28 kg/m² for BMI; +2·97 v. +4·47 mm for biceps skinfold). Total energy intake and consumption of total fat and saturated fat increased significantly less in the IG compared with the CG (+747·7 v. 1534·7 kJ (+178·7 v. +366·8 kcal); +5·9 v. +18·8 g and +0·8 v. +5·1 g respectively), while time devoted to leisure time physical activity and cardiovascular run test performance increased significantly more in the IG (+281 v. +174 min/week and +2·5 v. +1·2 stages respectively). The findings of the present study underline the importance of such programmes in health promotion and disease prevention. Although the long-term effects of these programmes can only be assessed by tracking this population through to adolescence and adulthood, these programmes seem to have the potential to lead to a healthier lifestyle and thus a reduction in risk factor levels.

Keywords:
Nutrition education: Children: Cardiovascular risk factors: Diet and exercise