HeartPower!

HeartPower! is an early intervention to educate children about coronary heart disease and reduce heart disease risk factors. Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in adults, with many factors for heart disease making their first appearance in childhood. This school-based educational program supplements standard health education curriculum, and includes instructional sessions on heart function, nutrition, physical activity, and living tobacco free. Each topic is presented by nursing students and educators in three, 30-minute sessions over the course of the school year. The HeartPower! kit for grades 3 through 5, includes a teacher resource book, instructional activities on how the heart works, audio and video cassettes, stethoscopes, and alcohol swabs.

The goal of HeartPower! is to increase knowledge of the heart and heart disease risk factors.

In a study of the HeartPower! intervention, third graders in Columbus, OH who participated in the program significantly improved knowledge of the cardiovascular system, heart disease risk factors, and healthy lifestyle (p < 0.05). Children who received the programming maintained a steady body fat percentage while children in a control group who received traditional health education developed higher body fat percentages. By the end of the program, fewer students in the intervention group than the control group reported eating 2 or more servings of sweets of fat per day (12% vs. 20%) and in the intervention group 21% of the children had reduced their consumption of fats by the end of the program. Participants also had modest improvements in blood pressure and exposure to tobacco smoke, and cholesterol levels remained consistent.