. Masoumeh Sadeghi; . Safoura Yazdekhasti; . Hamidreza Roohafza; . Ali Pourmoghaddas; . Zahra Kasaei; . Pejman Aghdak
Volume 4, Issue 4 , August 2014, , Pages 1-7
Abstract
Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the most common cause of mortality andmorbidity in women. Intervention programs aimed at improving the lifestyle can reduce theincidence ...
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Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are the most common cause of mortality andmorbidity in women. Intervention programs aimed at improving the lifestyle can reduce theincidence of these diseases and their factors. The purpose of this study was to evaluatethe difference of the interventions impact on CVD risk factors and the women’s physicaland biochemical indicators based on education levels. Materials and Methods: As part ofIsfahan Healthy Heart Program after identifying the status of women over the age of 18 andover five years, a large educational or environmental intervention was performed in differentmethodologies and in order to improve the lifestyle. Some organizations such as health carecenters and the Literacy Campaign Organization have cooperated for low educated women.Demographic data and risk factors such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes and serum lipidswere investigated and compared during the first and last phase. Data were entered in SPSS‑15software and were analyzed by using T‑test in two independent samples, Chi‑square testand Fisher exact test. Results: Findings of this study showed that performing the five yearsinterventions could reduce physical and biochemical indexes such as nutrition, lipid profile,waist circumference and waist‑to‑hip ratio in both groups (P < 0.005). In the pre‑interventionphase, 6391 subjects and after the intervention 4786 women participated. After Interventions,women with higher educational levels were showed significant decrease in Body MassIndex (BMI) (P = 0.01) and dyslipidemia (P = 0.02). Conclusion: The present study showedthat the community-based interventions even in low‑literate women could cause effectivechanges on improving lifestyle and CVD risk factors. Due to the greater impact of interventionsin literate women, effective interventions should be considered in the society to decrease theprevalence of Non‑Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
