[Results of a 2-year intervention for the modification of atherosclerosis precursors in school children]. / Ergebnisse einer zweijährigen Intervention zur Beeinflussung von Atherosklerosepräkursoren bei Schulkindern.

801 children aged 10-11 years were examined in 1984, before an allocation in two groups (intervention vs. control). The scope of the intervention was to modify mean values of blood pressure, total cholesterol and smoking through relevant modification of knowledge and behavior. An intermediate assessment, conducted 2 years after the first exam, showed better knowledge regarding cardiovascular diseases and more sport practice in the intervention group, although smoking habits were only slightly modified. Diet, body weight, blood pressure and blood lipid levels did not show any significative differences. The study is now ongoing.

Atherosclerosis precursors in schoolchildren--results of a two-year intervention study.

In order to reduce precursors of atherosclerosis, an intervention trial was carried out in pupils aged 10-11 years at the time of inclusion into the study (5th graders). The main goal of the study was to encourage health-promoting behaviour patterns--mostly present in the schoolchildren at that time--such as non-smoking, a negative attitude toward future smoking, a high level of physical activity including sports. The study design included dietary measures aimed at lowering blood pressure and total cholesterol values. Follow-up examination, performed at an interval of 2 years, revealed the following results: significantly lower mean total cholesterol values in girls attending the intervention schools; a significantly lower prevalence of smoking and a decrease in the number of casual smokers--compared with data obtained in the 5th grade--in the intervention schools; a negative attitude towards smoking and the extent of sport activities remained at the level of the 5th grade in the intervention schools.

[The effectiveness of a prevention program for cardiovascular diseases]. / Zur Wirksamkeit eines Präventionsprogramms gegen Herz-Kreislauf-Krankheiten.

In 1968 the addresses of all men of the annual courses of birth 1914-1923 of an Erfurt district were registered (n = 2 023). The aim population was according to accident subdivided into an intervention and a control group. The test persons of the intervention group were repeatedly investigated and participated in a preventive programme. Up to the final investigation in 1977 the control group remained absolutely intact. After about 10 years the intervention population had a statistically significantly lower frequency of infarction and a lower proportion of hypertensive values of blood pressure. In the younger five-year age group the total mortality was tendencially lower (not significant!) than in the adequate control group. There are no differences in the mortality from heart and circulatory diseases and in the distribution of other risk factors between intervention and control groups. A positive effect of the preventive programme was to be proved theoretically as well as empirically, though the decrease of the real incidence of infarction which is to be calculated was by far lower than generally was supposed.

[Prevention of hypertension of the city borough of Schwedt/Oder--results to date of a regional intervention program]. / Hypertoniebekämpfung im Stadtkreis Schwedt/Oder--bisherige Ergebnisse eines territorialen Interventionsprogramms.

More than 1,100 women and about 1,400 men, detected as being hypertensives in population screenings for cardiovascular diseases and coronary risk factors on 30-59 year-old females and 30-64-year-old males 1975 and 1976, respectively, in Schwedt - participation rate in both screenings 78 per cent (6,514 females and 7,137 males, respectively) - underwent an intervention programme carried out by all the general practitioners, physicians for industrial medicine and internists, working in the out-patient clinics of the territory. But in 1979 only 500 of these women and approximately 800 of these men were under continuous control. These registration rates after both the screenings as well as after the first follow-up in women 1977, therefore, have to be considered as unsatisfying. That lack in registration is mainly up to the enormous fluctuation of patients - and inhabitants at all-, being a characteristic feature of the population of the newly built town of Schwedt. In order to overcome these effects of migration within the territory and to improve supervision in hypertensives, a new control system regarding the peculiarities of Schwedt was established. In contrary to the failing registration an efficient lowering of blood pressure levels was achieved in those patients cooperating well, revealing normotensive diastolic mean values and systolic mean values, ranging from normotension to the lower borderline pressures. In women who showed a more impressive effect of treatment than men, the effective lowering could be maintained over a 4-year-follow-up period up to now.

[The correlation of blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride concentration with the administration of hormonal contraceptives in women from 2 Erfurt large-scale plants]. / Zur Abhängigkeit des Blutdruckes, der Cholesterol- und Triglyzeridkonzentration von der Einnahme hormonaler Kontrazeptiva bei Frauen aus zwei Erfurter Grossbetrieben.

Within the framework of medical check-ups of heart and circulatory system 1,296 women at the age from 15 to 49 years were examined in two Erfurt large plants. Women with hormonal contraception in the age groups 30-34, 35-39 and 45-49 showed statistically significantly higher mean values of the systolic blood pressure than women without oral contraception. In the same way the difference of the cholesterol mean value of 15.3 mg/100 ml and 11 mg/100 ml depending on the intake of ovulation inhibitors could be statistically ascertained in women at the age of 20-24 and 30-34 years. Women with hormonal contraception have statistically significantly higher triglyceride mean value in the age group 15-24 and 35-44 years than the women without oral contraception.