The development, implementation, evaluation, and future directions of a chronic disease prevention program for children: the "Know Your Body" studies.

In 1975, the American Health Foundation initiated the development, implementation, and evaluation of a school-based, teacher-delivered program of the primary prevention of heart disease, cancer, and stroke. The aims of this program, entitled "Know Your Body," are to modify favorably the population distributions of risk factors for chronic disease through changes in diet, physical activity, and cigarette smoking. After more than a decade of investigation, this program has been found to be feasible and acceptable to school personnel, students, and parents, and appears to have had favorable effects on prevention-related knowledge, dietary intake, obesity, blood cholesterol levels, and the rate of initiation of cigarette smoking among diverse populations of school children in the New York City area. If these findings can be replicated, the widespread implementation of such programs has the potential to reduce the population risk for the future development of the nation's leading causes of premature mortality.