PROJECT HOBIT – ONE LESSON OF BIOLOGY FOR SAVING LIFE – HOW TO TEACH SCHOOL CHILDREN ABOUT STROKE AND HEART ATTACK

Background:
In the Czech Republic every other citizen dies due to cerebro- and cardiovascular diseases, mainly brain and heart attacks. Nowadays medicine is able to prevent many cases of death, especially, if lay people know how to respond to symptoms of brain and heart attacks. Unfortunately, stroke and heart attacks awareness campaigns are not very effective. Therefore, many experts suggest educating about the most serious diseases children at school: it is the only way how to systematically transfer “life important” information.
HOBIT - One Lesson of Biology for Life is the innovative project for saving lives by means of multimedia and simulation education. The project will be implemented in 37 schools in the South-Moravian Region. The pupils at the age from 13 to 15 years will watch an instructive video and perform a simulation test in one lesson of biology in 2 consecutive years. Video will be prepared by experts in education and cerebro- and cardiovascular diseases in St. Anne´s University Hospital in Brno.
The survey which we carried out in 2009 showed the following: 1. There is no awareness of risk factors and symptoms of cerebro- and cardiovascular diseases among school children. Less than 10% would react correctly on the symptoms of the stroke. 2. Totally 76% of school children would like to get information on stroke by means of school lessons or lectures given by professional experts.

Objective:
The aim of the project is to teach school children about cerebro- and cardiovascular diseases by using innovative methods of education. Specifically, children will learn how to recognize symptoms of disease, how to respond to these symptoms, what the relevant risk factors are, and how to avoid them. The next step will be to implement this program into regular school education curricula. The objective of the project is based on the results of the survey aimed at the schoolchildren´s knowledge of stroke carried out among 500 pupils from 4 schools in the South-Moravian Region in 2009.

Methods:
Several short video sequences, demonstrating simulated brain and heart attack symptoms, will test response to symptoms of school children at baseline. Then children will be educated by the instructive video composed from 3D animations and acted parts. At the end of the session, and one year later children will be retested in the simulation test to demonstrate short- and long-term information retrieval. This educational program will be tested in 2700 pupils.

Results and conclusion:
The outputs of the HOBIT Project are: educational video, simulation test, manual for teachers and websites. Now 37 schools with 45 teachers are involved. The methodology of the educational program and the research design of the project will be presented on the conference.
If school children obtain at school information on stroke or other serious diseases it could improve prevention and better response to diseases symptoms. The ultimate goal is to develop health awareness programs suitable to be adopted by any school in the country.