WELLSBURG, W.Va. — Cholesterol readings are bandied about like baseball scores and residents brag about whittled waistlines two years after this town became part of a program aimed at reducing cardiovascular disease.

“When we started this, everyone called us `Fat City,”‘ program director Bill Reger said Tuesday. “Now, we’re being recognized as one of the most fit towns in the country.”

The results of the $3.3 million lifestyle modification study, scheduled to end next month, have been encouraging, Reger said.

Twice as many participants exercise regularly compared to when the study began in May 1988. And, Reger said, nearly all of the 1,000 participants, out of the town’s roughly 4,000 people, have reduced their intake of fat, salt and cholesterol.

Participants’ blood pressures, cholesterol levels, weight and other cardiovascular risk factors were checked every three months during the two-year study.

Tests earlier this year found more than half of the participants had lowered their average cholesterol readings by 15 points, from 221.3 to 206.3. A reading below 200 is desirable, according to the American Heart Association.

Their average weight dropped from 169.4 pounds to 166.4 pounds. They also reduced their blood pressure by an average 5 points and lowered their resting pulse rates by four beats per minute.

All of those values either remained about the same or decreased in the study’s final health screening in late April, according to Reger. Results of those tests are to be released June 9.

Reger said the most substantial improvement has been in the cholesterol readings, especially in the reduction of LDL cholesterol, the bad kind.