Swimming Immediately After Having a Meal

Swimming Immediately After Having a Meal: a Randomized Controlled Study

Many believe that it is unsafe to swim immediately after having a meal and that it is preferable to wait at least 30 minutes. The fear is that swimming can cause stomach cramps and muscle cramps with discomfort and potentially drowning.

With this randomized controlled trial, the aim was to investigate whether there was any hold in this belief and what could potentially happen by swimming with the stomach full immediately after a meal.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Sadness
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Swimming immediately after eating

Detailed Description

All volunteers will be adults. Participants will receive both oral and written information about the trial prior to giving consent for participation.

Participants will act as their own control over two days. On the first day, participants will be randomized to either swim immediately after they have eaten their usual lunch or 30 minutes after the last bite. They will do the opposite on the second day. The randomization will be done by throwing a dice.

Prior to swimming, participants will fill out the following:

• Visual analogue scale (VAS) about their well-being
• Questionnaire about their mood state

After swimming, participants will fill out the following:

• Visual analogue scale (VAS) about their well-being
• Questionnaire about their mood state
• Adverse events

Prior to swimming and afterwards, the participants' blood pressure, pulse, and blood oxygen levels will be measured.

Sample size: Convenience sample.

Withdrawal and dropout criteria: All participants will be informed that they can withdraw their consent at any point during the trial without having to explain any reasons.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 27
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Denmark
  • Herlev, Denmark, 2730
    • Center for Perioperative Optimisation, Department of Surgery, Herlev og Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• ≥18 years
• Healthy volunteers
• Otherwise, no restriction since each participant acts as their own control

Exclusion Criteria:

• Smoking one hour prior to swimming
• Participants who cannot swim

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Swimming immediately after eating; Two arms but all participants are performing both the intervention and the comparison.	Other: Swimming immediately after eating; After having the last bite of lunch, the participants will swim in the pool with a specific distance.
No Intervention: Swimming 30 minutes after eating; Two arms but all participants are performing both the intervention and the comparison.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Occurrence of mortality	Any adverse events leading to death	During swimming

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Swimming time	Measured by seconds	During swimming
Number of patients with any adverse events	Any adverse events other than already mentioned outcomes	During and immediately after swimming is completed
Discomfort	Self-reported assessment of discomfort on a visual analogue scale. Minimum: 0. To Maximum: 100mm. Ranging from no discomfort to the worse imaginable discomfort.	During the actual swimming and immediately after swimming is completed
Mood changes	Measured by the Profile of mood states. A five-point scale indicating the level of affection. Minimum: 1. To Maximum: 5.	Baseline and immediately after swimming

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Herlev Hospital

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): May 28, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 4, 2022
• Study Completion (Actual): June 4, 2022

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 25, 2022
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 29, 2022
• First Posted (Actual): June 2, 2022

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 26, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 25, 2023
• Last Verified: October 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 052022

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