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Cancer Society program
aims at kids’ behavior

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By Helen Altonn
Star-Bulletin

The American Cancer Society has launched a campaign to promote school health education among elementary school children feeding into the Kapolei and Roosevelt high school communities.

"When you look at those bad habit-type behaviors that we know lead to cancer and other serious diseases ... when you look at kids who are smoking ... the slippery slope starts at the fifth or sixth grade," said Amy Stone Murai, director of the Healthy Kids Network Project.

To do any good, prevention must focus on the elementary population, she said.

Hawaii is one of five states -- the only one west of the Mississippi -- chosen for the pilot program, entitled "Children Who Learn to Live Healthy Live Longer."

Materials developed by the American Cancer Society home office in Atlanta will be tested at elementary schools in the selected communities.

The Kapolei and Roosevelt school areas were chosen for the four-week program based on demographic data of the Department of Education and the literacy level of the campaign materials, Murai said.

Looking at parental education, the number of non-English-speaking residents and other factors, "We thought we would have a better reception for the pilot material in those communities," she said.

If reports are successful at the schools, the national organization will make the program available to all cancer societies nationwide, she said.

The program is being conducted at Makakilo, Barbers Point, Kapolei and Mauka Lani elementary schools in the Kapolei complex. Maemae and Pauoa schools are participating in the Roosevelt school area, and another elementary school may join the program.

Parents are targeted as well, Murai said.

The campaign is intended to make parents aware of the importance of school health programs and skills needed by children to make positive choices.

"I could give teens a pencil-and-paper test that they would have no trouble on about HIV/AIDS and how it's spread," Murai said. "But does it have any application on Saturday night up at Tantalus with a girlfriend?"

A major part of health education is teaching kids life skills they need to make use of facts, she said.

The cancer society is concerned about motor vehicle crashes, suicide and homicide -- the major causes of death among Hawaii's youths. Alcohol, other drug use and sexual activity are other serious problems targeted in the campaign.

"To us, health education shares the same importance as other school subjects like reading and math," Murai said.

The American Cancer Society cites these statistics from the 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Surveys:

65 percent of Hawaii's middle and high school students rarely or never wore a bicycle or motorcycle helmet.

25 percent seriously considered suicide in the past year.

15 percent of high school students smoked marijuana before age 13, and 14 percent of sixth- through eighth-graders have had sexual intercourse.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 1999 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 76.1 percent of all high-school students nationally do not eat the recommended daily servings of fruit and vegetables, 70.9 percent of high-school students do not attend physical education classes, and more than 32.8 percent use tobacco regularly.

Hawaii's Health Education Content and Performance Standards are aimed at teaching skills and behaviors that will lower chances of cancer, diabetes and heart disease, according to Dan Yahata, state education specialist for health and physical education.

Parents and community members who want to get involved can call 1-800-ACS-2345, toll-free. For more information, call Jackie Young, Cancer Society marketing director, 595-7500.