Cardiovascular Disease Enhanced Dissemination and Utilization Centers (EDUCs) Awardees

Awardee

Creighton Heart Education Center
Creighton University
Omaha, Nebraska

Target Population

The project's target population includes African Americans in the Omaha Metropolitan Area and Douglas County.

Proposed Strategy

This project will use community-based approaches to increase heart-healthy behavior among African Americans in the targeted community. Specific strategies include:

1. Conducting media and education campaigns to raise community awareness.
2. Conducting community-based cardiovascular health screening, referral, and follow-up services using a mobile screening unit and health fairs.
3. Conducting nutrition education (including shopping tours, cooking schools, and healthy eating classes) and physical activity classes.
4. Training community health advocates to conduct comprehensive heart health awareness activities to increase the adoption of heart-healthy lifestyles.
5. Conducting professional education training.

The proposed strategies will focus on all four NHLBI performance goals:

• Prevent development of risk factors.
• Detect and treat risk factors.
• Recognize and treat acute coronary syndromes early.
• Prevent recurrence and complications of CVD.

Anticipated Outcome

This project aims to achieve the following:

• Increase awareness of and action to control CVD risk factors.
• Increase adoption of heart-healthy lifestyle behaviors through implementation of community-based exercise, nutrition and weight management, smoking cessation, and blood pressure control interventions.
• Increase physicians' awareness and application of the latest NHLBI CVD "best practice" interventions.