فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

Background: Health volunteers can have a great effect by training the population about preventionof cardiovascular disease (CVD) and lifestyle modification. This study evaluated the health volunteers’knowledge following the “Isfahan Healthy Heart Program (IHHP)” that was performed between 2000and 2006. Materials and Methods: In this study, 491 females were selected among health volunteersin the Isfahan and Najafabad districts as intervention areas and Arak as a reference area through2000-2001 until 2006. They participated in training courses on CVD, its complications, methodsof prevention of risk factors control as well healthy lifestyle promotion. The health volunteers’ levelof knowledge was assessed before and after training. Results: Before intervention, there was nosignificant difference between the scores of health volunteers in the intervention and the controlregions in terms of knowledge about recognizing the symptoms, complications and preventionof CVD and relevant risk factors and healthy lifestyle. However, their knowledge scores increasedsignificantly in the fields of CVD (β = 0.13, P = 0.04), hypertension (β = 0.18, P = 0.009), healthynutrition (β = 0.19, P = 0.007), appropriate physical activity (β = 0.17, P = 0.01) and dealing withstress (β = 0.16, P = 0.02) after trainings. Conclusion: The 6 year interventional program of IHHPshowed that training health volunteers on prevention of CVD, their risk factors and modification oflifestyle continued to be effective even in a long time.