The Finns were stung enough by their poor performance rates to do something about them. They started their North Karelia (the region between Finland and Russia) Project in 1972, and it is still continuing. The North Karelia health and social services departments combined in an onslaught on heart disease, with the specific aim of reducing blood pressure and the amount of saturated fats (mainly red meat and dairy products) in the diet. The mass media cooperated in the project. From 1974 to 1979, in North Karelia there was a 22 percent reduction in coronary heart disease deaths, compared with a 12 percent reduction in neighboring Kuopio, and an 11 percent reduction in Finland minus Kuopio and North Karelia. In 1982 the difference was still evident, showing that community-based programs giving a strong health message can work. However, the message has to be continued for each generation: more recent reports in the 1990s concerning Finland suggest that the current population is backsliding and that its heart disease rates are rising again.
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