The sustainability of interventions of a community-based trial on children and adolescents’ healthy lifestyle

BACKGROUND: Sustainability is the core of a successful health-related intervention program. This study was conducted to evaluate the sustainability of interventions of the Heart Health Promotion from Childhood (HHPC) project, one of the ۱۰ interventional projects of the Isfahan Healthy Heart Program. METHODS: The evaluation of HHPC included administrating surveys to ۵۰۰ elementary and middle, and ۵۰۰ high school students. The study participants were randomly selected from all schools in Isfahan. The questionnaires were administered by interviews to evaluate the sustainability of interventions. RESULTS: The results of interviews showed that interventions were sustainable in ۱۰۰% of elementary school, ۹۹% of middle school, and ۸۷% of high school students. Training of healthy lifestyle behaviors was significantly higher in all-girls middle schools (P < ۰.۰۰۱). Daily morning exercise was more frequent in girls high schools (P < ۰.۰۰۱), while selling unhealthy food was more frequent in boys high schools (P < ۰.۰۰۱). The participants attributed the success of the program mostly to students’ agreement and cooperation. CONCLUSION: Even though ۵ years have passed since the end of the HHPC project, many of the interventions have been continued at the schools, often because healthy behaviors have become institutionalized in the target population. However, now all schools have the same level of sustainability, especially the middle and high schools, and all-boys schools. Therefore, it is important for future projects to place additional emphasis on these institutions for future school-based interventions.   Keywords: Behavior, Community Health Planning, Institutionalization, Schools, Sustainability