Early Prevention Helps Kids Be Heart Smart

December 5, 2007

Arthur Nead
anead@tulane.edu

Healthy lifestyles begin in childhood, so Tulane cardiologist Gerald S. Berenson is taking the lessons learned from Tulane’s long-running Bogalusa Heart Study and applying them to promote healthy lifestyle and nutrition choices for children.

Berenson, research professor of epidemiology, medicine and pediatrics at Tulane University, spearheaded a $140,000 grant to continue the health promotion program for 7,000 elementary school children in Washington Parish, La.

“We know that heart disease, obesity and bad lifestyles like smoking and drinking alcohol start in childhood,” says Berenson.

“This is a program for prevention. It’s primary prevention, beginning in childhood, rather than giving them drugs after they already have heart disease, which is secondary prevention.”

The Health Ahead/Heart Smart program received the grant from the Southeast Louisiana Area Health Education Center, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration, Office of Rural Health Policy.

The Bogalusa Heart Study, the longest and most detailed study of a biracial (black and white) population of children in the world, focuses on understanding the early natural history of coronary artery disease, hypertension and diabetes, according to Berenson, principal investigator of the study.

Health Ahead/Heart Smart is currently in use in all elementary schools throughout Washington Parish. The program was first set up in 2005 when the Washington Parish Council provided $50,000 to hire two coordinators. The new grant will allow the program to continue for at least another two years.

Focusing on children in kindergarten through sixth grade, the program actively engages children in learning about health through teaching by role models and by many forms of hands-on learning.

“The program is a comprehensive health education program that addresses the entire school environment, not just the classroom, but parents and teachers as well,” says Berenson. “It addresses not just nutrition and exercise, but general health, smoking, alcohol, teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, violent behavior, all of it.”

The program provides each teacher with a teacher’s guide and related planning materials. In-service training on health is provided to classroom teachers, physical education teachers, and even to cafeteria staff. Educators also receive detailed health screenings to heighten their personal awareness of health issues.

The health program involves doctors and medical staff in the parish to help with children who don’t have insurance but have ailments. The sheriff enforces the legal age limits for tobacco and alcohol purchases. Business people also lend support to the program.

“The entire structure of the community — political, medical and educational — is involved,” says Berenson.

“We hope to make this a model for the counties across the United States to adopt,” he adds. “Everyone has a program to prevent obesity, but no one else has a program that is this comprehensive.”