Health experts agree that coronary artery disease establishes its stranglehold on the heart in childhood. Preventing or slowing the process could result in a healthier future for adolescents and young adults.
And nipping heart disease in the bud is what a new health screening project called CARDIAC is all about.
Sponsored by the West Virginia Rural Health Education Partnership (RHEP) in conjunction with the West Virginia University School of Medicine, the CARDIAC (Coronary Artery Risk Detection In Appalachian Communities) project's goal is to help decrease heart disease in West Virginia by conducting screenings to help identify children across the state who might be at risk.
Children at risk of developing coronary artery disease are identified through several health risk assessments: body mass, blood pressure, diet, exercise, and blood cholesterol.
"West Virginia has one of the highest rates of heart disease in the nation," warns William Neal, M.D., a pediatric cardiologist at WVU and the project's principal investigator. "Elevated cholesterol levels is one of the primary indicators that heart disease could very well develop later on in
life."
Any child with a cholesterol level greater than 200 will be offered the opportunity for him and his parents to have a more precise blood test performed at a later date free of charge.
"Approximately one-third of children we screen will be found to have elevated cholesterol levels," advises Dr. Neal. "The purpose of the screening is to identify children - and parents - who are at risk of heart disease so that the family's primary care provider can initiate treatment or begin preventive measures such as improved diet and increased exercise." The parents signature on a consent form sent home with the student is all this is required, he says.
In addition to helping identify and reducing the risk of heart disease, another major benefit of the CARDIAC project is exposing the state's health science students (those studying medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and physical therapy) to rural medicine.
Jaycee Goddard, a fourth-year medical student from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in Lewisburg, WV, thinks the RHEP program and projects such as CARDIAC are helpful in allowing students to get a first-hand look at rural medicine.
"RHEP gets you out in the state's rural communities," said Goddard as she took a break from performing cholesterol tests on fifth graders at Smoot Elementary School in Smoot, WV. "One of the great things about projects such as this is that it really exposes us to rural medicine and the unique problems facing communities in the less populated areas of the state," she explains.
Third-year WVSOM medical student Melissa Painter agrees, stating, "If it weren't for RHEP and community medicine programs like this, I don't think a lot of health science students would ever visit rural areas of the state."
Retention experts point out that a key to keeping health professionals in rural states is to expose them to the benefits and joys of practicing rural medicine. "You don't know what it's all about unless you see it for yourself. Sometimes students just fall in love with a community they might otherwise have never visited," Goddard adds.
Dr. Neal and his colleagues will be publishing results of the CARDIAC study as the project moves through the state. An internet database called CWIP (Computerized Wellness Interactive Program) will be established to allow each child who participates in the study to access his information on-line, Dr. Neal says. "In today's web crazed worls, I think the kids will really enjoy that."
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