Three Community and Five Cities Projects

Stanford University's Three Community Project was a two-year, large-scale health education intervention that began in 1972. It attempted to lower cardiovascular risk using mass media-based education in two intervention communities and compared this to a control community. The Five Cites Project was an even larger-scale, six-year study that began in 1978 and included not only a mass media intervention but also added a variety of targeted communication to high-risk groups. These two studies as well as others including the North Karelia project in Finland and Minnesota's Heart Health Project have provided important data on the value and power of health communication in public health interventions.