Effects of a School-based Intervention to Increase the Water Consumption in Elementary School Children (H2NOE)

September 6, 2021 updated by: Ursula Griebler, Danube University Krems

Process and Outcome Evaluation of an Intervention to Increase the Water Consumption of Elementary School Children in Lower Austria - a Pilot Study

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.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

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.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

1485

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Austria
      • St. Pölten, Austria, 3100
        • Lower Austrian Health and Social Fund

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • ADULT
  • OLDER_ADULT
  • CHILD

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

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

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: PREVENTION
  • Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
  • Interventional Model: PARALLEL
  • Masking: SINGLE

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
EXPERIMENTAL: Intervention group "Wasserschulen"
Schools receive refillable drinking bottles for all school children and drying racks for each classroom. Schools receive special project educational material and informational material and one training session for teachers. The intervention will be implemented during one school year (2018/2019), but schools can use the material and bottles also after ending of the intervention period.
Behavioral: Wasserschulen

Schools receive following materials and trainings:

  • one training sessions for teachers (at the beginning of the intervention)
  • refillable water bottles for each school student
  • drying rack for water bottles for each classroom
  • educational material for each class and for school events
  • informational material for parents
NO_INTERVENTION: Control group
No intervention (usual education). Schools do not receive any project material. Schools got the information that they are part of a study on drinking and eating habits of third grade elementary school children.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in water consumption of school children (from baseline to post-intervention and follow-up)
Time Frame: baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
consumption of tap water, in number of glasses (with 1 glass defined as 200 mL) per day/ during school time (self-report)
baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
Change of attitude of school children towards drinking water (from baseline to post-intervention and follow-up)
Time Frame: baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
preference for water and sugar-sweetened beverages (measured as agreement to various statements regarding water and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption with 5 likert-scale answer categories: yes, that's right; yes, mostly; no, mostly not; no, not true; I don't know)
baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in beverage consumption of school children (from baseline to post-intervention and follow-up)
Time Frame: baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
consumption of tap water, mineral water, fruit- and herbal tea, milk and cacao, soft drinks (lemonade, cola and iced tea), juice and juice with water; in number of glasses (with 1 glass defined as 200 mL) for the last 24h
baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
Change in food consumption of school children (from baseline to post-intervention and follow-up)
Time Frame: baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
consumption of fruit and berries; vegetables (raw or cooked); sweets, chocolate or ice-cream; soft drinks (lemonade, cola and iced tea); fast food (french fries, chicken nuggets, pizza, McDonald's, sausages); salty snacks (crisps, popcorn, salted pretzel sticks); frequency of consumption during a normal week, when thinking of the last weeks
baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
Change in breakfast consumption of school children (from baseline to post-intervention and follow-up)
Time Frame: baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
frequency of eating breakfast during school days and on the weekend
baseline, end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months), follow-up (after two school years, 21 months)
Parameters of process evaluation (implementation dose)
Time Frame: end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months)
frequency of addressing the topic water during regular lessons, implementation of classroom rules for water drinking, extent of water bottle use of school children; by online questionnaire (all teachers from intervention schools); extent of water bottle use, by paper and pencil questionnaire (all school children from intervention schools); number of interventional material distributed in school; by online questionnaire (all headmasters from intervention schools)
end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months)
Parameters of process evaluation (implementation fidelity)
Time Frame: end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months)
implementation of classroom rules for water drinking; extent of information for parents; by online questionnaire (all teachers from intervention schools)
end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months)
Parameters of process evaluation (implementation reach)
Time Frame: end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months)
proportion of classes that implemented the intervention, information about intervention on the school homepage, number of interventional material distributed in school; by online questionnaire (all headmasters from intervention schools); extent of information for parents; by online questionnaire (all teachers from intervention schools)
end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months)
Parameters of process evaluation (acceptance)
Time Frame: end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months)
focus group discussions with a subset of school children, teachers and school headmasters
end of intervention (after one school year, 9 months)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Danube University Krems

Collaborators

Medical University of Vienna
Lower Austrian Health and Social Fund

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Ursula Griebler, PhD, MPH, Danube University Krems

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (ACTUAL)

June 7, 2018

Primary Completion (ACTUAL)

July 13, 2020

Study Completion (ACTUAL)

July 13, 2020

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 19, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 21, 2019

First Posted (ACTUAL)

February 25, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (ACTUAL)

September 13, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 6, 2021

Last Verified

September 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • H2NOE-Wasserschule

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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