Effects of a School-Based Health Education for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention Among High School Girls

Purpose: We aimed to evaluate effects of a school-based health education for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention among high school girls. Methods: Non-randomized cluster trial was conducted by recruiting two female high schools located in Seoul and allocating one school as a cluster to an experimental group and the other school as the other cluster to a control group. Participants were 169 first-year female high school students in two clusters. Of the participants, 84 were recruited in the experimental group and 85 in the control group. An intervention was an eight-week "School-based Health Education for CVD prevention". The experimental group received the intervention, while the control group received a CVD prevention handout. Measures were knowledge, self-efficacy, and health behaviors for CVD prevention. The pre-test and post-test were conducted. Results: The experimental group participating in "School-Based Health Education for CVD Prevention" had significantly higher changes in knowledge, self-efficacy scores to prevent CVD, and health behaviors than the control group over eight weeks. Conclusions: The "School-based Health Education for CVD Prevention" program may improve high school students' knowledge and self-efficacy as determinants of health behaviors as well as health behaviors to prevent cardiovascular disease.