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Evaluation of West Virginia House Bill 2816

House Bill 2816 was designed to address the growing problem of childhood obesity in West Virginia. The legislation includes school-based requirements for physical and health education, fitness testing, body mass index assessments, and allowable beverages. Through a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Childhood Obesity Program grant, the HRC plans to evaluate the implementation and impact of the legislation on students, parents, school systems, and health care providers throughout the state.

RHEP Interdisciplinary Session (IDS) on Rural Health Beliefs

Stemming from the research findings of the NHLBI grant, the HRC created a SOLE IDS for students completing their RHEP rotations. The session was developed to guide students in critically thinking about the health beliefs of their patients and how those beliefs impact health behavior. Students enrolled in the session are provided with an overview of health behavior theories, the NHLBI grant, health beliefs common to residents of Appalachia, barriers/facilitators to participation in health screenings, and sources of health information. Through a series of reflective questions and cultural sensitivity quizzes, students are encouraged to evaluate their own health beliefs and their impact on patient/practitioner interactions.

Objectives

The long-range goal of this research program is to prevent the development and progression of heart disease in at-risk children and their parents. The specific objective for this project was to identify and reduce the health belief barriers to an existing cholesterol and health screening program (CARDIAC).

Questions this NHLBI-funded research project planned to answer:

What are the common beliefs about health held by 5th graders and their parents?How do these health beliefs influence decisions to participate in CARDIAC and other health screening programs?What information can be given to families to increase their participation?How should that information be communicated?Will a program that is “tailored” to health beliefs improve participation?

Partners

Coronary Artery Risk Detection in Appalachian Communities Project (CARDIAC)
Extensive information about the CHD screening project occurring in all 55 counties of West Virginia can be found on their website. The founder of CARDIAC, Dr. Bill Neal, is an investigator on this project.

West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnership
WVRHEP is an important partner for CARDIAC and this research project. This health group includes community members, rural health care providers, and health sciences students and faculty from West Virginia colleges and universities. WVHRHEP Coordinators oversee the conduct of CARDIAC screenings in the schools and collaborated with the research team throughout this project.

West Virginia Department of Education
The Office of Healthy Schools within the WV DOE has been a strong supporter of CARDIAC and this research project. School nurses, teachers, and principals have collaborated and participated in all phases of this research.

Publications and Presentations

Publication

  • Deskins, S., Harris, CV., Bradlyn, AS., Cottrell, L., Coffman, JW., Olexa, J. (2006). Preventive Care in Appalachia: Use of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Identify Barriers to Participation in Cholesterol Screenings among West Virginians. Journal of Rural Health, 22(4), 1-8.

Presentations

  • Cottrell, LA, Harris, CV, Bradlyn, AS, Olexa, J, Coffman, J. Developmental and demographic differences in parent perception and prevention behavior. Paper presented to the annual meeting of the Society for Behavioral Medicine, March 2006.
  • Deskins, S, Harris, CV, Bradlyn, AS, Coffman, J, & Olexa, J. Disparities in diet and physical activity knowledge and behavior in rural parents. Paper presented to the CDC Diabetes and Obesity Conference, Denver, CO, May 2006.
  • Deskins, S, Harris, CV, Bradlyn, AS, Coffman, J, Olexa, J, Cottrell, L, Neal, W. Development of tailored cardiovascular disease prevention materials for a high risk sample. Paper presented to the annual meeting of the Society for Prevention Research, San Antonio, TX, May 2006.

NHLBI Evaluation Team

  • Laurie C. Abildso, Research Assistant
  • Jessica Coffman, Program Coordinator
  • Dr. Lesley Cottrell, Associate Director, CARDIAC Research
  • Dr. Shelli Deskins, Post Doctorate Fellow
  • Zhaoyong Feng, Statistical Associate
  • Dr. Erdogan Gunel, Statistician
  • Dr. William Neal, Founder and Director, CARDIAC Project
  • Dr. Carole V. Harris, Principal Investigator
  • Dr. Andrew S. Bradlyn, Investigator

Timeline

Years 1 and 2

(August 2003-July 2005)

  • Establish contact with school and community personnel involved with study
  • Conduct focus groups and individual interviews and create Health Beliefs Questionnaires (Study 1)
  • Obtain Health Beliefs Questionnaires from 5th grade children, parents and community leaders (Study 2)
  • Create Tailored CARDIAC recruitment procedures using data from focus groups and questionnaires
  • Create Tailored/Standard CARDIAC Procedure Manuals to use during personnel training
  • All research counties follow Standard Procedures for recruitment to CARDIAC to establish baseline participation rates

Year 3

(August of 2005- July of 2006)

  • Train Field Personnel
  • Monitor personnel adherence to Standard and Tailored procedures for recruitment to CARDIAC
  • Compare participation rates for counties using Standard and Tailored procedures for the initial CARDIAC screening (Study 3) and for the follow-up fasting lipid profile (Study 4)
  • Conduct follow-up interviews with participants

Year 4

(August of 2006 - July of 2007)

  • Complete data analysis
  • Present findings to schools, RHEP, and communities
  • Prepare articles of research results