Belgian schools trial DRINK program to swap soft drink for water

A program called ‘Decreasing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and Raising tap water consumption through Interventions based on Nutrition and sustainability for Kids’ (DRINK) goals to encourage Belgian schoolchildren to adopt healthier habits. The study protocol is published in BioMed Central’s journal Trials.

Study Protocol: Decreasing consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and Raising tap water consumption through Interventions based on Nutrition and sustainability for Kids: study protocol of the “DRINK” cluster randomised controlled trial. Image Credit: urbans / Shutterstock

Background

Health experts and policymakers have been concerned about children consuming sugary drinks and other sweetened beverages (SB) for a long time. Also they are not drinking enough water. Consuming SB as a substitute of water could cause weight gain, obesity, and tooth decay. Dehydration can also be a significant issue. Belgium is among the many top five consumers of SB in European countries, making it a public health issue.

Schools are an excellent place for college students to learn healthier habits that encourage them to scale back SB consumption and increase their water intake. Nonetheless, many faculties have vending machines that stock SB or don’t have functioning water taps. Parents may send their children to highschool with SB.

“Careful evaluation of health promotion at college is crucial. Indeed, school is identified as an interesting health-related intervention setting, however the efficiency of health promotion at college has not been sufficiently evaluated to date.”

To handle this issue, researchers of the current study decided to involve parents and schools within the DRINK program. Replacing SB with tap water has several advantages. It’s healthier for the youngsters and inexpensive for his or her parents. Using tap water will even generate less waste.

Concerning the study

The DRINK program has been implemented as a cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) in 168 schools in Belgium. The colleges were randomized to certainly one of 4 treatments: (1) no treatment (control), (2) sustainability-based interventions focused on the environmental impact of water waste and bottled water, (3) nutrition-based interventions focused on the health advantages of water and the harm attributable to sugar, and (4) each kinds of interventions. All the scholars in a college received the identical treatment.

Informative documents (leaflets and posters) were distributed to varsities, students, and fogeys. DRINK also instituted water breaks and discussion meetings in schools in groups (2)-(4). This system provided reusable bottles and glasses only to students who needed them. Researchers asked teachers on top of things schools to proceed their then-ongoing programs on sustainability and nutrition.

DRINK began implementation within the 2020-2021 school yr when the primary round of information was collected. At the start of this system, the scholars were 8-10 years old (Grades 3-5). The study design required that students be followed up for 2 school years, and schools without students in 3^rd-Sixth grades and people having under 11 students by grade weren’t chosen for the study for organizational reasons. The participants were asked to fill out questionnaires marking their each day consumption of SB with stickers. These booklets were designed to be easy for the youngsters to make use of and understand.

Together with the scholar questionnaires, school staff were interviewed in regards to the implementation of DRINK at their institution and any inconveniences they faced. Parents also provided information on their occupation, household weight-reduction plan, living conditions, and sustainable behaviors through self-completed questionnaires.

There was an intermediate survey in 2021/2022; the ultimate round of surveys took place in 2022/2023 when the scholars were 10-12 years old. The identical information was collected in each wave of information collection. The researchers hope to finish their evaluation and present findings by the top of 2024.

The study outcomes are average each day SB consumption (in mL) and the proportion of youngsters consuming SB each day. It can assess whether the DRINK program successfully reduced SB consumption and increased water intake in Belgian schoolchildren. The researchers will even see whether nutrition-based or sustainability-based actions are more practical.

To look at the impact of nutrition-based interventions, students from groups (1) and (3) will likely be compared with those in (2) and (4). Comparing (2) and (3) with (1) and (4) will provide the effect of the sustainability-based interventions. To see if the 2 interventions interact, researchers will compare groups (3) and (4) with (1) and (2). The evaluation will consider aspects resembling the socio-economic status of the kid’s school and family that would affect program impact. The outcomes will even allow researchers to discover probably the most cost-effective intervention.

Discussion

DRINK is the primary study to systematically evaluate a school-based health intervention over an extended period (2 years). This system has benefited from the guidance of experts in public health, epidemiology, psychology, and economics. Feedback was also taken from school administrators. If effective, this system could be implemented across the country.

The researchers hope their work will improve the delivery of health interventions by communicating their findings with various health promotion programs and other stakeholders in Belgium. They will even present their results to the staff on the participating schools. The DRINK program is a promising try to instill healthy behaviors at school students and their families.