FOR RELEASE
March 13, 1996                          

SCHOOL TRIAL LOWERS STUDENTS' FAT INTAKE, BOOSTS PHYSICAL
ACTIVITY

A trial involving nearly 100 elementary schools in four
states has proved that young children can be taught
behaviors that could help protect them against heart disease
later in life.

Furthermore, the study showed that such eating and activity
behaviors can be taught through a cost-effective program and
with only minimal training of school personnel.  And the
interventions worked equally well among ethnically diverse
public schools.

The Child and Adolescent Trial for Cardiovascular Health
(CATCH) is the largest school-based health promotion study
ever done in the U.S. and was supported by the National
Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), part of the
National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, MD.
Results of the 3-year, multi-center trial appear in the
March 13, 1996, issue of the Journal of the American Medical
Association.

"The results of this trial are important because behaviors
that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease are often
established by young adulthood," notes NHLBI Director Dr.
Claude Lenfant.  "These behaviors, such as physical
inactivity and diets high in saturated fat, form the basis
of the atherosclerosis process." 
   
"Schools are an ideal site for prevention programs like
CATCH," adds Dr. Russell V. Luepker, head of the Division of
Epidemiology at the University of Minnesota School of Public
Health in Minneapolis.  "Schools have access to virtually
all of the children and adolescents in the country, and they
have trained staff and the kinds of organizational
structures and policies that can support healthy behaviors."

CATCH's health promotion efforts targeted both the
children's behaviors and the school environment.  CATCH
worked with administrators, teachers, physical education
specialists, and food-service and other staff to change
cafeteria offerings, physical education practices, and
classroom curricula.  The trial also used family fun nights
and activities in the home to involve parents.

The trial involved 96 public elementary schools in
California, Louisiana, Minnesota, and Texas.  The
interventions were done at 56 of the schools, while the
other 40 served as controls.  Children started the trial in
grade 3 and were in grade 5 at its completion.

Altogether, more than 5,000 children participated in the
trial.  

The interventions were of four main types--food
service, physical education, classroom curricula, and family
involvement.

The food-service intervention helped food-service staff
plan healthier menus and prepare meals with reduced total
fat and saturated fat.  To improve physical education,
teachers were given instruction on how to increase students'
enjoyment of and participation in moderate to vigorous
activity.  Classroom curricula taught students to engage in
behaviors and skills for choosing healthful foods and
increasing physical activity.  The classroom teachers were
trained to use such techniques as goal setting, role
modeling, and skill-building.  Additionally, a classroom
intervention for fifth graders focused on avoiding tobacco
use, including how to resist social pressures to start
smoking.  Schools also were given guidance on how to
establish smoke-free policies.

Results showed that students in the CATCH intervention
schools had a lower daily calorie intake from total fat and
saturated fat than students in the control schools.  The
CATCH interventions successfully improved school lunches to
meet Federal guidelines of 30 percent of each day's total
calories from fat and 10 percent from saturated fat. 
Moreover, the changes were seen in the intervention
students' home eating patterns too.  Blood cholesterol
measures, however, did not differ significantly between
children in the control and intervention schools.

The CATCH interventions also exceeded the Federal Year 2000
goal of having students spend at least 50 percent of their 
time in physical education classes being moderately to 
vigorously active.  And the improvement extended beyond
the classroom--students in the intervention schools reported
significantly higher levels of vigorous activity throughout
the day than those in the control schools.

Vitamins and other micronutrients stayed at recommended
levels in both intervention and control groups and there
were no adverse effects on students' growth or development
from the CATCH interventions.