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for the CATCH Collaborative Group Objective.\p=m-\To assess the outcomes of health behavior interventions, focusing on the elementary school environment, classroom curricula, and home programs, for the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.Design.\p=m-\Arandomized, controlled field trial at four sites with 56 intervention and 40 control elementary schools. Outcomes were assessed using prerandomization measures (fall 1991) and follow-up measures (spring 1994).Participants.\p=m-\A total of 5106 initially third-grade students from ethnically diverse backgrounds in public schools located in California, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Texas.Intervention.\p=m-\Twenty-eight schools participated in a third-grade through f i f t h\ x=req-\ grade intervention including school food service modifications, enhanced physical education (PE), and classroom health curricula. Twenty-eight additional schools received these components plus family education.Main Outcome Measures.\p=m-\Atthe school level, the two primary end points were changes in the fat content of food service lunch offerings and the amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in the PE programs. At the level of the individual student, serum cholesterol change was the primary end point and was used for power calculations for the study. Individual level secondary end points included psychosocial factors, recall measures of eating and physical activity patterns, and other physiologic measures.Results.\p=m-\Inintervention school lunches, the percentage of energy intake from

To assess differences through grade 8 in diet, physical activity, and related health indicators of students who participated in the Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health (CATCH) school and family intervention from grades 3 through 5. Design: Follow-up of the 4-center, randomized, controlled field trial with 56 intervention and 40 control elementary schools. Participants: We studied 3714 (73%) of the initial CATCH cohort of 5106 students from ethnically diverse backgrounds in California, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Texas at grades 6, 7, and 8. Results: Self-reported daily energy intake from fat at baseline was virtually identical in the control (32.7%) and intervention (32.6%) groups. At grade 5, the intake for controls remained at 32.2%, while the intake for the intervention group declined to 30.3% (PϽ.001). At grade 8, the betweengroup differential was maintained (31.6% vs 30.6%, P = .01). Intervention students maintained significantly higher self-reported daily vigorous activity than control students (P = .001), although the difference declined from 13.6 minutes in grade 5 to 11.2, 10.8, and 8.8 minutes in grades 6, 7, and 8, respectively. Significant differences in favor of the intervention students also persisted at grade 8 for dietary knowledge and dietary intentions, but not for social support for physical activity. No impact on smoking behavior or stages of contemplating smoking was detected at grade 8. No significant differences were noted among physiologic indicators of body mass index, blood pressure, or serum lipid and cholesterol levels. Conclusion: The original CATCH results demonstrated that school-level interventions could modify school lunch and school physical education programs as well as influence student behaviors. This 3-year follow-up without further intervention suggests that the behavioral changes initiated during the elementary school years persisted to early adolescence for self-reported dietary and physical activity behaviors.

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Objective-To study the relationship between peer-related physical activity (PA) social networks and the PA of adolescent girls.Methods-Cross-sectional, convenience sample of adolescent girls. Mixed-model linear regression analyses to identify significant correlates of self-reported PA while accounting for correlation of girls in the same school.Results-Younger girls were more active than older girls. Most activity-related peer social network items were related to PA levels. More PA with friends was significantly related to self-reported PA in multivariate analyses. NIH-PA Author ManuscriptConclusions-Frequency of PA with friends was an important correlate of PA among the peer network variables for adolescent girls. KeywordsSocial networks; social support; physical activity; adolescents; girls Physical activity declines in adolescent girls, and there is a need to understand factors that are associated with this phenomenon. 1 Heaney and Israel suggest that in adults, social support together with social networks has an important causal effect on health, exposure to stress, and the relationship between stress and health. 2 Almost every study that has examined the relationship between physical activity and social support has found a strong positive association using both cross-sectional and prospective study designs, and most have focused on adults. 3-7 There is also evidence that social support may be more influential for women than for men 5-7 and that social networks are the primary means by which individuals receive support. At the same time, the evidence for the relationship between peer support in adolescents is inconsistent. Most studies use overall measures of support with considerable variation in the measurement of physical activity. 8Most research on social networks or peer influence in adolescents has focused on health risk behaviors, such as the influence of peers on smoking behavior. 9-14 Fewer studies have examined whether and how friends' prosocial behaviors may affect the positive health behaviors of adolescents. For instance, prosocial groups are also thought to be protective against violent behavior in youth. 14 Preliminary findings from the PACE (Patient-Centered Assessment and Counseling for Exercise) study showed the relationship between overall peer support and self-reported PA was stronger for girls compared to the boys. (unpublished analyses, J Prochaska & J Sallis, July, 2002). No published data currently exist on peer networks and physical activity among adolescent girls. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper provides preliminary data on the activity-related social networks of middle school girls. Social networks that include active girls or boys could positively influence girls' physical activity by providing opportunities for social support, social influence, social engagement, and access to resources and personal contact to encourage physical activity. 15,16 Understanding which social network features are related to physical activity and the ways by which they promote p...