About Cardiac WV
Project Description and Background
According to the United States Census Bureau, West Virginia (WV) is the third most rural state in the nation, with 51.8% of its 1.8 million people living in communities of less than 2,500 population and 34 of its 55 counties designated non-metropolitan by the Federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
The economic plight of WV is reflected in the cardiovascular health of its residents. The age-adjusted rate of heart disease was 212/100,000 in 2006, 16% higher than the national average. Over 10% of the population has heart disease, the highest percentage in the nation. Lifestyle clearly is an issue. Results of the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System in 2018 showed that WV had the highest rate of obesity, and the 2nd highest rate of diabetes in the nation. The WV Coronary Artery Risk Detection In Appalachian Communities (CARDIAC) Project, which was started in 1998, is a chronic disease risk factor surveillance, intervention, and research initiative designed to combat the unacceptably high prevalence of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses in West Virginia.
Dr. William Neal, WVU School of Medicine created the WV CARDIAC Project in response to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Request for Application entitled "Addressing Familial Hypercholesterolemia(FH): A Model Program for States". As a recipient of this award, we offered free blood cholesterol screening to youth in the school setting as a means of diagnosing the 1/250 families with the condition. FH confers a twenty-fold increased risk of coronary disease as compared with the general population. In addition, a goal of our comprehensive screening program has been to identify and refer for treatment children with co-morbidities associated with obesity, such as hypertension and type 2 diabetes.
The WV CARDIAC Project was initially funded through the WV State Legislature but is currently supported by Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) from the USDA Food and Nutrition Service. WVU Extension Health Educators function as community leaders in schools to help implement the screening process and deliver the school-based education component. The WV CARDIAC Project is administered through a partnership between the WVU School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics and the WVU College of Applied Human Sciences. The CAHS Center for ActiveWV oversees the Project implementation and evaluation.
WV CARDIAC Project Objectives:
Specific aims:
- To reduce heart disease mortality to the national average by 2020 by identification and referral for treatment individuals with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), the most severe genetic cause of premature coronary heart disease (CHD).
- Partner with state government, schools, local agencies, and the private sector to reduce the obesity epidemic in West Virginia.
- Apply population-based health behavior interventional strategies targeting children and their families, and individualized interventional strategies for children identified as at-risk for diabetes and heart disease.
Surveillance: Provide accurate and comprehensive school-based assessment of risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity among West Virginia youth to public health officials, health planners, and state government, and to parents of children who participated in screening.
Interventions: Provide, through collaboration with others, interventions that facilitate knowledge, positive attitudes, and desired behaviors in children and families related to health risk factors.
Research: Apply high-level analysis of acquired data so as to accurately inform health promotion and disease prevention strategies for West Virginia families and communities.
Infrastructure
The WVU Extension Health Educators serve each of the participating counties. They work under the direction of the WV SNAP-Ed Director with the WVU Extension Service, along with the WVU College of Applied Human Sciences and the WVU School of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Cardiology.
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