Evaluation of The Life Is Cool program

The need for donated organs far outweighs the supply. The Donate Life Kentucky Coalition and community volunteers have partnered to educate upper elementary students on the opportunity for organ and tissue donation. The Life Is Cool program educates students about organ function, the importance of nutrition and physical activity to the health of organs, and works to dispel common myths and misconceptions surrounding organ and tissue donation. The program has been implemented in elementary schools in Kentucky for over three years, but has not been formally evaluated. Middle school students (n=546) from three schools participated in the evaluation study of the Life Is Cool program. Two schools received different versions of the educational program while the third school served as a non-intervention comparison group. This dissertation presented findings based on exposure to the Life Is Cool educational materials. Students responded to items on general knowledge on organ function, nutrition and physical activity, knowledge on organ donation, attitudes regarding organ donation, and intentions to become an organ donor in the future. ANOVA and post hoc LSD comparisons identified that the revised Life Is Cool program significantly improved mean scores on general knowledge (p=.006) compared to students receiving the original curriculum and the no-treatment control group (p=.000). Students who received the revised curriculum also had significantly higher scores on knowledge of organ and tissue donation (p=.000) compared to students in the no-treatment control; however, there was no significant difference between students who received the revised versus the original curriculum (p=.059). Post hoc LSD analysis showed a significant difference (p=.000) at pre test between students who received revised curriculum and the no-treatment control on mean attitude scores; however, there was no significant difference between students who received the revised versus original curricula (p=.104). Using chi square analysis, significant differences were identified in the proportion of students who received the revised curriculum that intended to register as a donor in the future (p=.000); however, there was no difference between students who received the revised versus original curricula (p=.256). the revised Life Is Cool curriculum shows promise for increasing knowledge of organ donation, increasing the likelihood of a family discussion about the donation decision, and increasing the proportion of those who intend to register as an organ donor in the future.;KEYWORDS: Organ Donation, Physical Activity, Nutrition, School-based Health Promotion, Program Evaluation.