School-Based Interventions, for Preventing Risk Factors for Cardiovascular Disease: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

This paper provides a review of the scientific literature, on the effects of intervention school programs on risk
factors for cardiovascular disease, in children and adolescents. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is currently the
leading cause of morbidity in developed and developing countries and its incidence is likely to increase. Risk factors contributing to CVD are hypertension, elevated LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) and triglyceride levels, low HDLcholesterol levels, obesity and physical inactivity. Numerous school-based health promotion interventions have been developed and tested. In this review we can see the development and the changes of the intervention approach and also that these school interventions provide mixed results, depended on the duration, the age and sex of the participants and the curriculum of the intervention program. Most of these programs have the potential to help children and adolescent to improve the risk factors even in some of them the research was limited and, in some cases, were methodologically weak. Additional studies may needed to identify better the duration, the quantity and the curriculum of the school based intervention programs, which will improve the risk factors for cardiovascular disease in children and adolescents