RESULTS OF A 2-YEAR HEALTH-EDUCATION CAMPAIGN ON DIETARY BEHAVIOR - STANFORD 3 COMMUNITY STUDY

A 2 yr, bilingual mass-media health education campaign was carried out in 2 communities with a 3rd serving as control. In 1 of the 2 treated communities, personal counseling of high risk individuals (intensive instruction) took place. Dietary behavior, before and after the campaigns, was assessed using a dietary questionnaire which estimated the average daily consumption by participants of cholesterol, saturated fat (S) and polyunsaturated fat (P). Intensive instruction and the mass-media campaigns led to significant reductions (20-40%) in cholesterol and saturated fat consumption in men and women, with intensively instructed men tending to outperform men exposed to mass-media alone. Generally, the improvements in the treated communities were maintained over the 2 yr of the study, whereas the initial small drops in the control community at the end of the 1st yr were followed by recidivism during the 2nd yr. Polyunsaturated fat consumption fell slightly in all 3 communities so that increases in P/S ratios in the 2 treated communities were of only modest degree. Mean changes in plasma cholesterol concentration for the various cohorts studied were highly correlated with those predicted on the basis of the self-reported changes in dietary behavior. Mass-media health education campaigns can lead to significant changes in dietary practices in the general population with potentially important public health implications.