Clinical trial NCT03852173: Effects of a School-based Intervention to Increase the Water Consumption in Elementary School Children
Official title: Process and Outcome Evaluation of an Intervention to Increase the Water Consumption of Elementary School Children in Lower Austria - a Pilot Study
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Water Consumption
Drinking Behavior
Keywords: Child
Health promotion
longitudinal studies
Surveys and Questionnaires
beverages
Water/administration & dosage
Austria
Program evaluation
Students/statistics & numerical data
Food Preferences
Follow-Up Studies
school setting
behavioural change
Lead sponsor: Danube University Krems
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Lower Austrian Health and Social Fund
name: Medical University of Vienna
First posted: 2019-02-25
Enrollment: 1485
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: Intervention versus no intervention
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: The purpose of this controlled intervention study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based intervention aiming at increasing the water consumption in elementary school children. The intervention schools received refillable water bottles and drying racks for all school children as well as educational material. The focus of the intervention is the promotion of drinking tap water.

Detailed description: This pilot project, called "H2NOE-Wasserschulen" (Water Schools in Lower Austria), aims to increase the water consumption of school children in elementary schools, to raise awareness of water drinking in children, parents and school teachers and to promote water drinking in Lower Austria in general.

By increasing the consumption of water, the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages may decrease and in the long run may have a positive impact on children's body weight and tooth status.

All intervention schools receive refillable water bottles for each school child and drying racks for each classroom. Furthermore, in each school an information session for all school teachers is held and the teachers receive prepared educational material. The control schools do not receive the water bottles nor the educational material.

For the study, the investigators recruited 22 intervention schools and 32 control schools. Outcomes will be measured by paper and pencil questionnaires of school children at third grade of participating elementary schools in Lower Austria and with online questionnaires of teachers at baseline, at the end of the intervention (after one school year/June 2019) and at the one-year follow-up (after two school years/June 2020).

For process evaluation outcomes, the investigators will carry out focus group discussions with a subsample of school children and teachers and include questions in the respective questionnaires for school children, teachers and school headmasters. Parents will have the possibility to give feedback online.

Eligibility criteria: For the intervention schools:

Inclusion criteria:

* elementary school in Niederösterreich (Upper Austria, a province of Austria)
* no juice provided with the school milk programme

For the school children taking part in the survey:

Inclusion criteria:

* school children in third class of elementary school (at baseline)
* written declaration of consent by a parent/guardian

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in water consumption of school children (from baseline to post-intervention and follow-up)
timeFrame: baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
measure: Change of attitude of school children towards drinking water (from baseline to post-intervention and follow-up)
timeFrame: baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in beverage consumption of school children (from baseline to post-intervention and follow-up)
timeFrame: baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
measure: Change in food consumption of school children (from baseline to post-intervention and follow-up)
timeFrame: baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
measure: Change in breakfast consumption of school children (from baseline to post-intervention and follow-up)
timeFrame: baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
measure: Parameters of process evaluation (implementation dose)
timeFrame: end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months)
measure: Parameters of process evaluation (implementation fidelity)
timeFrame: end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months)
measure: Parameters of process evaluation (implementation reach)
timeFrame: end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months)
measure: Parameters of process evaluation (acceptance)
timeFrame: end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months)
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: St. Pölten
country: Austria
facility: Lower Austrian Health and Social Fund
Study officials:
affiliation: Danube University Krems
name: Ursula Griebler, PhD, MPH
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Griebler U, Titscher V, Weber M, Affengruber L. Evaluation of the 'H2NOE Water Schools' programme to promote water consumption in elementary schoolchildren: a non-randomised controlled cluster trial. Public Health Nutr. 2022 Jan;25(1):159-169. doi: 10.1017/S1368980021003438. Epub 2021 Aug 13.