Effective Cardiovascular Health Education in the Young

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Abstract
The study was designed to assess the efficacy of one national health education effort, the School Health Curriculum Project ("Berkeley Project"), in increasing the level of cardiovascular health knowl edge of sixth-grade students. Using a recently developed test of cardiovascular health knowledge, the Iowa Cardiovascular Health Test (ICVHT), 577 sixth-grade and 358 seventh-grade students from six Iowa school districts participating in the Berkeley Project were compared to two control groups. Significant differences in knowledge were present following comple tion of the cardiovascular unit when sixth-grade students in the experimental group weere compared to those in the control groups. However, differences in knowledge levels were transient, lacking practical significance when seventh-grade students were tested one year following completion of the instruction. The results of this investigation have implicationsforfuture health education curricular design and imple mentation.