Improvements in heart health behaviors and reduction in coronary artery disease risk factors in urban teenaged girls through a school-based intervention: the PATH program.

We sought to assess the effects of a school-based intervention program on cardiovascular disease risk factors in urban girls. We compared heart health knowledge, health behaviors, cardiovascular risk factors, and physical fitness among a group of 442 multiethnic teenaged girls (310 experimental participants vs 132 control participants). Testing was conducted before and after a 12-week program of vigorous exercises integrated with lectures and discussions on diet, exercise, stress, and smoking. Significant differences in body fat, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart health knowledge, and whether breakfast was eaten were observed between experimental participants and control participants. An integrated program of exercise and heart health-related lectures and discussions had a beneficial effect on health knowledge, health behaviors, and onset of risk factors for coronary artery disease among urban girls.