The CHIC studies were designed to:

• Determine the development of risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in school children as they progress from 3rd grade through high school, and

• Assess the feasibility and success of modifying health and PE curricula in participating schools to reduce the incidence of those risk factors.

Funded by the National Institute for Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health, the study began in 1990 with 2200 third and fourth grade students. Students are now in high school. This group of students belong to Cohorts 1 and 2.

Two types of PE/Health curricula modifications have been tested.

• The first, provided to 3rd and 4th graders, was successful in reducing body fat and cholesterol and increasing fitness, physical activity and health knowledge.

• The second curriculum, provided to 6th through 8th grade students, was implemented in 1995 on a new set of participants (Cohort 3) and was successful in improving fitness and blood pressure, and in reducing body fat and cholesterol.

The studies have been conducted in 15 counties across North Carolina and have involved approximately 50 elementary, middle and high schools. Schools were selected based on two criteria:

• First, if they were either rural or urban. That is, urban schools are located in cities with at least 50,000 population. Rural schools are located in counties that do not contain a city of greater than 50,000 population and are in towns of less than 2500 population.

• Second, study schools are evenly distributed across the three major geographic regions of the state: Western Mountains, Central Piedmont and Eastern Coastal Plain.

Information collected each year since 1990 includes:

Height, weight, triceps and subscapular skinfolds, blood pressure, total cholesterol (fasting lipid profile on subset), submaximal prediction of aerobic fitness, and health behaviors of usual physical activity, eating, smoking, as well as selected other health information.

Parents of subjects have been asked to provide family demographics, their own eating and activity habits, as well as their family history of heart disease.

The CHIC studies are supporting studies for the UNC-CH Center for Research on Chronic Illness (CRCI).

Detailed data collection and quality control methods are available upon request to the investigators. Email to chic@unc.edu.