FINNISH HEALTHY VILLAGE STUDY - IMPACT AND OUTCOMES OF A LOW-COST LOCAL HEALTH PROMOTION PROGRAM

In the Finnish Healthy village Study, the basic health profiles of wor king-aged people (20-64 years) were characterized in four rural villag es in 1986. After that, a 3-year health promotion programme (intervent ion) was carried out in two of these villages and in two additional vi llages, in collaboration with the local village governing boards, loca l primary health care centres, and adult education institutions. The a dditional two villages served as controls. Based on the outcome evalua tion, the mean value of serum cholesterol decreased in the interventio n villages from 6.89 to 6.23 mmol/l (10%) and in control villages from 6.41 to 6.02 mmol/l (6%). The mean proportion of HDL-cholesterol of t he total increased 28% in the intervention villages and 21% in the con trol villages. The biggest improvement took place in mean plasma vitam in C concentrations. In the intervention villages, the mean value incr eased 53%, from 42.1 to 64.6 mu mol/l and in the control villages 29%, from 43.5 to 56.3 mu mol/l. A decrease in mean systolic blood pressur e from 142 to 137 mmHg took place in the intervention villages and fro m 141 to 134 mmHg in the control villages. No decrease was achieved in : mean diastolic blood pressures and body mass indices. The programme was cost-effective as far as nutritional risk factors were concerned. Changing physical exercise patterns of people in rural villages proved to be more difficult than changing dietary habits.