Impact of Cholesterol Screening on Cholesterol Education Knowledge Outcomes: 1521

According to the American Heart Association (AHA), atherosclerosis begins in childhood and elevated cholesterol levels early in life may contribute to the development of atherosclerosis in adulthood. Thus, healthy lifestyle choices during childhood and adolescence are critical. Heart attack and stroke are abstract concepts to 9th grade students. We hypothesized if the student had knowledge of their current lipid profile, they may have greater interest in the cholesterol education unit and achieve a higher score on a knowledge-based cholesterol questionnaire. PURPOSE: To evaluate if knowledge of blood lipid profiles prior to cholesterol education affected cholesterol knowledge outcome. METHODS: Subjects for this study were 205 9th grade students in a mandatory physical education/health course. Subjects were divided into four groups: 1) Screening and Education, 2) Screening with No Education, 3): Education with No Screening, 4): Control Group, No Screening/Education. All subjects were given pre- and post-tests based on the AHA's “Test your Cholesterol IQ” quiz. Routine descriptive statistics and 2-way ANO VA with repeated measures (p≤05) were performed. RESULTS: Table 1: Mean Scores ±s.d (% correct)TableWhile results show statistically significant improvement from pre- to post-tests, cores reflected a failing grade. Furthermore, there was not a statistically significant difference between groups. CONCLUSION: Cholesterol education will improve student knowledge of cardiovascular disease; however, student's knowledge of blood lipid levels in this study did not result in significant improvements in test scores. Cholesterol Screenings provided by BroMenn Healthcare courtesy of a grant funded by BroMenn Service Auxiliary.