Promotion of Cardiovascular Health in Preschool Children: 36-Month Cohort Follow-up

Abstract

BACKGROUND Educational interventions in preschool children could improve dietary behavior and physical activity, and prevent unhealthy body weights in low- and middle-income countries. Previously, we have reported the beneficial impact of an educational intervention in preschoolers in a 6-month trial. We now report extended results after 36 months. METHODS Evaluating the cohort of previously intervened children, baseline measurements were made in May 2009 in 14 preschool facilities in Usaquén (Bogotá, Colombia). Follow-up measurements were performed at 18 and 36 months. The primary outcome was the mean change in children’s knowledge and attitudes scores regarding healthy eating and living an active lifestyle, including habits scores related to physical activity. Secondary outcomes were the change over time of children’s nutritional status and the mean change in parent’s knowledge, attitudes, and habits. RESULTS We included 1216 children, 3–5 years of age, and 928 parents. After adjusting by sex and age of children, socioeconomic status, age of parents, and age and education level of teachers, we found a significant increase in mean knowledge, attitudes, and habits scores at 36 months, compared with baseline: 87.94 vs 76.15 (P <.001); 86.39 vs 57.03 (P <.001); and 66.29 vs 48.72 (P <.001), respectively. We observed a similar increase in knowledge and attitude scores in parents: 73.45 vs 70.01 (P <.001); and 78.08 vs 74.65 (P <.001). The proportion of eutrophic children increased from 62.1% at baseline to 75.0% at 36 months (P <.0001). CONCLUSIONS After 36 months, the educational intervention maintained a beneficial trend toward a healthy lifestyle in children and their parents.

Global Perspective on Acute Coronary Syndrome

“…150 Critical to the success of these interventions is community engagement, cultural relevance and appropriateness, optimization of the school environment, and involvement of the family. 151-153 Programs that have been implemented successfully in LMICs 144,145 can be reproduced in other low-resource settings. 154,155 …”

The SI! Program for Cardiovascular Health Promotion in Early Childhood

“…We used the questionnaires and scoring system first developed in the Colombian Initiative for Healthy Heart Study (16,18,19). The questionnaires assessed An overall score, representing the intervention as a whole (overall KAH), was derived from the sum of each component-specific KAH (Table 1) and was defined as the primary outcome of the intervention.…”

Prevalencia elevada de factores de riesgo cardiovascular en una población pediátrica

“…fomenten un estilo de vida activo y una alimentación saludable, cambios que perduran incluso hasta tres años después de finalizada la intervención (13,14).…”

“…En Bogotá, la Fundación Cardio-Infantil -Instituto de Cardiología lidera un programa pediátrico de prevención de la enfermedad cardiovascular basado en el conocimiento de que algunos de los factores de riesgo asociados a su aparición se adquieren en edades muy tempranas en las que la prevención primaria es determinante (11)(12)(13)(14). Por esta razón, se decidió llevar a cabo el presente estudio para conocer la prevalencia de los factores de riesgo de la enfermedad cardiovascular en niños de 3 a 17 años de edad hijos de enfermeras de la Fundación Cardio-Infantil, información que en el futuro permitirá realizar acciones en prevención primaria y secundaria.…”