1. ¹Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Clinic, School of Medicine, University of Crete, Crete, Greece
2. ²Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Harokopio University of Athens, Kallithea, Athens, Greece

Correspondence: A Kafatos, Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Clinic, University of Crete, School of Medicine, P.O. Box 2208 GR-71003, Heraklion, Crete, Greece. E-mail: kafatos@med.uoc.gr

^†Co-authors: A Ioanna, B Froso, C Caroline, F Sofia, H Christos, K Michalis, L Manolis, M George, M Irini, S Katerina and I Kafatos.

Received 24 September 2004; Revised 4 March 2005; Accepted 13 May 2005; Published online 6 July 2005.

Abstract

The current study examines the long-term effects of a school-based 'Health and Nutrition Education programme' on body mass index (BMI) changes and the prevalence of overweight. The intervention group consisted of all pupils registered in the first grade of two counties of the island of Crete in 1992, while all pupils registered in a third county formed the control group. For evaluation purposes, a representative sample was examined at baseline (1992) following the 6-y intervention (1998) and 4 y after the programme's cessation (2002). The data presented here are based on pupils with full anthropometrical data in all three examination periods (284 intervention group pupils and 257 control group pupils). Former intervention group pupils had lower average BMI (by 0.7 kg/m², s.e. 0.28, P=0.019) at the 10-y follow-up compared to the control group subjects, while no differences were detected in the prevalence of obesity between the two groups. The findings of the current study indicate that the beneficial effects of the programme on pupils' BMI continue, to an extent, 4 years after its cessation. However, the lack of significant differences in the prevalence of overweight between the two groups indicates that the effects of the intervention may not be equally distributed in the population, with greater effects in certain subgroups and less or none in others.