Table 1 Brief summary of the main activities of the ten interventional projects of Isfahan Healthy Heart Program [6]
Project name | Main interventions |
|---|---|
Healthy Food for Healthy Community | Training about healthy cooking methods, making high-fiber low-salt bread, production of healthy food products by food industries, modifying food labels, educating the public on the concept of healthy nutrition, improving the formulation of confections, introduction of healthy brands and half-portions into restaurants and fast food shops |
Isfahan Exercise and Air Pollution Control Project | Providing training on exercise and physical activity through local TV, distribution of educational CDs about exercise at home and at worksite, organizing public exercise rallies, organizing automobile-free days, organizing healthy heart exhibitions, educating about air pollution control methods through local TV, advocating the development of bicycle lanes in the city |
Women Healthy Heart Project | Training the young women and their family members who attended pre-marriage classes, instructors of the Literacy Campaign Movement and their students, instructors of charities, women's Basij Movement, women in different organizations, women attending health centers and health houses, female volunteer-instructors of the Red-Crescent Society, educating the public through TV and cook books, distributing a CD about methods of physical activity requiring no special facilities |
Heart Health Promotion from Childhood | Population approach by training children, parents, health professionals, school and kindergarten staff about healthy lifestyle, promotion of physical activity in schools and kindergartens, introduction of healthy snacks in schools and kindergartens and establishing healthy buffets in schools, forming role model groups from volunteer students, providing practical training through TV about healthy lifestyle; and high-risk approach by screening for CVD risk factors in children of patients with premature CVDs and children with at least one risk factor such as obesity. |
Youth Intervention Project | Training volunteers from the Red Crescent Society, garrison instructors, soldiers in their mandatory military service and university students, and kitchen staff of universities and garrisons about healthy lifestyle, conducting the international anti-smoking Quit & Win campaign |
Worksite Intervention Project | Training occupational medicine physicians or health assistants, introducing dietary modifications into restaurants of factories, enforcing no-smoking regulations at worksite, using the existing screening system to detect high-risk groups, encouraging physical activity at worksite, publishing health messages about CVD prevention as an integrated part of official newsletters of different organizations. |
Non-Governmental Organizations and Volunteers Project | Training health workers in cities and villages, forming, training and empowerment of an assembly of health volunteers, training of the community about performing physical activity in the absence of facilities, healthy nutrition and coping with stress via trained volunteers and health-related NGOs. |
Health Professionals Education Project | Establishment of educational assemblies, training GPs through continuing medical education (CME) courses, training physicians through periodical seminars, training nurses by organizing educational assemblies, and publishing and distributing books and newsletters among nurses and other health professionals in urban and rural areas, running information campaigns on various occasions |
Healthy Lifestyle for High-Risk Groups | Training the personnel of the health system, high-risk individuals, retired employees, activation of clinics at hospitals, public training, distributing educational brochures to those attending pharmacies, printing health messages on laboratory report sheets |
Healthy Lifestyle for Cardiovascular Patients Project | Training the patients and their families at the time of discharge, printing cards for patients to record all necessary information related to their condition, establishing rehabilitation units in all heart hospitals, improving nutrition-related and cooking procedures at hospital restaurants, distributing educational folders containing educational materials on cardiovascular disease secondary prevention and rehabilitation |