Heart health promotion: a community development experiment in a rural area of Quebec, Canada

Abstract

As part of the Quebec Heart Health Demonstration Project, a heart health promotion and prevention program, this experiment is being performed in a rural area of the province of Quebec (Canada). This program, promoted by the Public Health Department and supported by local community service centers, is taking place in ten municipalities of the Rivière-du-Loup area. Our main intentions are to first establish, and then maintain, a community-based promotion-prevention heart health program over the 5-year period of the experiment. Objectives concerning community development, intervention targets, and behavior changes are reported, along with the description of the program and some early community development results.