Abstract Background: School interventions based on playful activities have been shown to be good strategies for increasing children's knowledge about health, which may impact healthy habits. Objective: To evaluate whether the school health education program entitled “Happy Life, Healthy Heart” increases health knowledge and causes a change in teachers’ and students’ lifestyles. Method: Cluster randomized clinical trial including elementary school students and teachers from public schools in the city of Frederico Westphalen, Brazil. The intervention consisted of the training of teachers on topics of health, followed by classes on topics related to cardiovascular health given by these teachers to the students. The students were evaluated for nutritional status and health knowledge using the CARDIOKIDS and DAFA questionnaires, and teachers were assessed for physical activity. The Student's t-test, the chi-square test and the two-way ANOVA test were used for comparisons between groups, and McNemar-Bowker for intra-group comparisons. P values of <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 473 children were included, 211 (44.6%) in the control group (CG) and 262 (55.4%) in the intervention group (IG), and 32 teachers (control = 14, intervention =18). There was no difference in health knowledge of the students after the intervention (CG 10.53 ± 0.11 vs. 11.19 ± 0.09 p = 0.061, IG 10.20 ± 0.12 vs. 11.09 ± 0, 09 p = 0.416), although 57.7% of the children of the IG reported having stopped eating pizza and drinking soft drinks (p <0.001), following the Brazilian Food Guide recommendations. Among teachers of the IG, an increase of 27.9% in physical activity level was observed. Conclusions: The “Happy life, healthy heart” program was able to change students’ eating habits and increase physical activity in teachers.

Abstract Objective: To evaluate the child development and evaluate a possible association with the commitment by biopsychosocial factors of children with and without congenital heart disease. Methods: Observational study of case-control with three groups: Group 1 - children with congenital heart disease without surgical correction; Group 2 - children with congenital heart disease who underwent surgery; and Group 3 - healthy children. Children were assessed by socio-demographic and clinical questionnaire and the Denver II Screening Test. Results: One hundred and twenty eight children were evaluated, 29 in Group 1, 43 in Group 2 and 56 in Group 3. Of the total, 51.56% are girls and ages ranged from two months to six years (median 24.5 months). Regarding the Denver II, the children with heart disease had more "suspicious" and "suspect/abnormal" ratings and in the group of healthy children 53.6% were considered with "normal" development (P≤0.0001). The biopsychosocial variables that were related to a possible developmental delay were gender (P=0.042), child's age (P=0.001) and income per capita (P=0.019). Conclusion: The results suggest that children with congenital heart disease are likely to have a developmental delay with significant difference between children who have undergone surgery and those awaiting surgery under clinical follow-up.