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Program targets health awareness of 5th-graders

September 22, 2009

In an effort to help fifth-grade students attain a better grasp on health awareness, students and faculty from MSU will lead the (S)Partners for Heart Health Education program for the second year in a row, starting this month.

The program, which began in fall 2008, is a joint operation between MSU’s colleges of human medicine and osteopathic medicine and aims to promote healthier lifestyles in fifth-grade students. This year, four schools in Michigan will participate in the program, including Hope Middle School in Holt and Eugene Nikkari Elementary school in St. Louis, Mich., both of which were part of the program last year.

The program, which is free for the fifth-graders, is a multifaceted initiative to provide health education for the children and also provide information for MSU researchers on whether that education has any effect on promoting healthier lifestyles.

Dean Manikas, the principal of Hope Middle School, said the program is a worthwhile experience for the children in his school.

“It’s great that you bring MSU students who have an interest in medicine in contact with our kids who might not experience that level of concern on a daily basis,” he said.

As part of the program, MSU graduate students from the colleges of human medicine and osteopathic medicine collect data at the beginning and end of the school year by taking the blood pressure, cholesterol and body mass index of the fifth-graders. Throughout the year, kinesiology and dietetic students work with the children to encourage and promote physical activity. An online-based portion of the program allows fifth-grade students to report their food servings and consumption to their MSU student partner, said Stacey LaDrig, the (S)Partners for Heart Health Education study coordinator.

“They set goals about number of servings of a particular food on the (food) pyramid and then they are also striving to reach a physical activity goal of 60 minutes a day for five days a week,” LaDrig said.

Joe Carlson, an associate professor for Division of Sports & Cardiovascular Nutrition, said fifth-grade students were the primary subjects for this study because other research has shown a noticeable decline in physical activity from ages 10 to 15 years old.

“Fortunately at younger ages, they don’t have as many risk factors, but critical risk factors track into cardiovascular diseases as people age,” Carlson said. “Over the last 15 to 20 years, there is data the kids are becoming more sedentary and that’s not so good.”

Results from the first year of the program won’t be available until January, Carlson said.

LaDrig said (S)Partners for Heart Health Education has the possibility to take off in other communities that can support this type of interaction.

“I think it would an amazing opportunity,” LaDrig said. “It’s an education that we feel like kids might not be otherwise getting, as far reaching that we can take this is what we want to do.”

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