A pilot study of the effect of cholesterol measurement on the eating patterns of adolescents

The impact of instruction and cholesterol measurement and feedback on nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported behaviors was measured among 754 tenth-graders enrolled in 14 physical education and 14 health education courses at two suburban high schools. Those who received instruction had higher scores than those who did not receive instruction, as expected, but those who received instruction plus cholesterol measurement and feedback had lower scores than those who received instruction only. Those who received neither instruction nor measurement and feedback had the lowest scores. The statistical power of the analysis was too low to draw conclusions about differences that were not nonstatistically significant.