Iran Journal of Nursing

  Background and Aim: Lack of knowledge about correct life style and prevalence of unhealthy behaviors play an important role in increasing cardiovascular diseases. The purpose of this study was to determine knowledge, attitude and performance of educational staff about cardiovascular diseases.

  Material and Method: This cross-sectional study was done in 2007 in selected educational districts of Tehran affiliated to ministry of education. In this study, 703 teachers and health instructors participated. Multi-stage sampling was used and the data was collected by a self-report questionnaire consisting 20 awareness questions and 15 attitude questions about cardiovascular risk factors, and 21 questions about performance in diet, physical activity and smoking. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by content validity and test-retest reliability within a 10 days period.

  Results: The results showed that 67% of the subjects had good knowledge of and 83.8% of the subjects had positive attitude towards cardiovascular risk factors. The majority of the subjects had moderate or weak performance in nutrition (71.6%) and physical activity (64.4%). Also, 77.7% of the subjects had no smoking history. There was a significantly statistical positive relationship between knowledge and attitude of the subjects (P ≤ 0.0001).

  Conclusion: According to the findings, although knowledge and attitude of educational staff about cardiovascular risk factors was good their performance in some aspectss was not acceptable. Therefore, it is suggested to provide effective educational programs for improving the nutrition and physical activity status for teachers and prevention and control of cardiovascular diseases.