HEALTHY START - A COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH-EDUCATION PROGRAM FOR PRESCHOOL-CHILDREN

Background, Healthy Start is a 3-year demonstration and education rese arch project designed to evaluate the effectiveness of a multidimensio nal cardiovascular (CV) risk reduction intervention in preschool cente rs over a 3-year period of time. Methods. Two primary interventions ar e employed. The first is the preschool food service intervention progr am designed to reduce the total fat in preschool meals and snacks to l ess than 30% of calories and reduce the saturated fat to less than 10% of calories. The second major intervention is a comprehensive prescho ol health education curriculum, focused heavily on nutrition. Results. Effectiveness of the intervention will be determined through evaluati on of changes in dietary intake of preschool children at school meals and snacks, especially with respect to intake of total and saturated f at. Evaluation of the education component will include assessment of p rogram implementation by teachers, assessment of changes in nutrition knowledge by preschool children, and assessment of changes in home mea ls that children consume (total and saturated fat content). Blood chol esterol Rill be evaluated semiannually to evaluate changes that may be due to modification of dietary intake. Growth and body fatness will a lso be assessed. Conclusions. While substantial efforts have targeted CV risk reduction and health education for elementary school children, similar efforts aimed at preschool children have been lacking. The ra tionale for beginning CV risk reduction programs for preschool childre n is based upon the premise that risk factors for heart disease are pr evalent by 3 years of age and tend to track over time, most commonly h ypercholesterolemia and obesity, both related to nutrition. Since the behavioral antecedents for nutritional risk factors begin to be establ ished very early in Life, it is important to develop and evaluate new educational initiatives such as Healthy Start, aimed at the primary pr evention of car diovascular risk factors in preschool children. The pu rpose of this publication is to describe the rationale and methods for the Healthy Start project. (C) 1998 American Health Foundation and Ac ademic Press.