The checkerboard cardiovascular curriculum: a culturally oriented program.

A cardiovascular health education curriculum was designed and pilot-tested with 218 fifth grade students from rural New Mexico. The program incorporated materials, examples, and exercises relevant to the Navajo and Pueblo American Indian and Hispanic cultures of the students. Significant increases in knowledge about the cardiovascular system, exercise, nutrition and obesity, tobacco use, and habit change were found, suggesting a culturally oriented program may help promote a healthy lifestyle in minority group children.

Physical characteristics related to coronary heart disease risk factors: comparison of hispanics and navajo, acoma and laguna indians in new Mexico.

Abstract The Checkerboard Cardiovascular Curriculum (CCC) project was designed to develop a culturally-oriented educational program for reducing coronary heart disease (CHD) risk factors in rural American Indians and Hispanics in the state of New Mexico. Because so little information is available on children from these ethnic groups, the purposes of this paper are: 1) to describe and compare some physical characteristics of Hispanics and Navajo, Laguna and Acoma Indians which are associated with CHD risk factors; and 2) to assess the short-term effectiveness of the CCC in altering these CHD risk factors. Body weight, height, blood pressure, one mile walk/run data, and triceps, subscapula, and calf skinfold thicknesses were collected for 97 boys and 79 girls from the four ethnic groups. Results of analyses of covariance (ANCOVA), controlling for age, indicated ethnic differences for all dependent variables. The average body mass index of all Indian children exceeded the median values reported in the second National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES-II). The average sum of the triceps and subscapula skinfolds of the children from all ethnic groups failed to meet acceptable standards established by The National Children and Youth Fitness Study (NCYFS). The results of the CCC project suggest that these children are in need of health promotion and physical fitness programs that emphasize obesity and cardiovascular fitness and provide for ethnic and cultural differences.

Quantitative blood cultures in the evaluation of septicemia in children with Broviac catheters.

We applied quantitative methods of analysis to all blood cultures drawn during the course of treatment in 28 children with Broviac catheters in a central vein. Thirty febrile episodes in 14 of these patients were evaluated. Samples of blood obtained from a peripheral vein and through the central catheter were cultured quantitatively on agar plates and nonquantitatively in standard broth media. Catheters were judged to be a source of septicemia nine times in seven children. In all nine positive catheter samples, the concentration of pathogens was 10 times as great as that observed in the peripheral venous sample. The blood drawn through the Broviac catheter contained greater than or equal to 2000 colony-forming units per milliliter in six cases. Quantitative cultures in two patients with septicemia not attributable to the catheter yielded low colony counts in the catheter sample. Cultures of blood samples drawn through the catheter when a child was well were not helpful in predicting subsequent septicemia. The technique of inoculating blood directly onto agar plates is easily performed and superior to standard broth cultures, because it detected pathogens within 16 hours and identified infections with multiple organisms.