Details:

Alternative Title:
Prev Chronic Dis
Personal Author:
Onufrak, Stephen J. ; Park, Sohyun ; Wilking, Cara
Onufrak, Stephen J. ; Park, Sohyun ; Wilking, Cara Less -
Description:
Introduction

Caloric intake among children could be reduced if sugar-sweetened beverages were replaced by plain water. School drinking water infrastructure is dictated in part by state plumbing codes, which generally require a minimum ratio of drinking fountains to students. Actual availability of drinking fountains in schools and how availability differs according to plumbing codes is unknown.

Methods

We abstracted state plumbing code data and used the 2010 Youth Styles survey data from 1,196 youth aged 9 through 18 years from 47 states. We assessed youth-reported school drinking fountain or dispenser availability and differences in availability according to state plumbing codes, sociodemographic characteristics, and area-level characteristics.

Results

Overall, 57.3% of youth reported that drinking fountains or dispensers in their schools were widely available, 40.1% reported there were only a few, and 2.6% reported that there were no working fountains. Reported fountain availability differed significantly (P < .01) by race/ethnicity, census region, the fountain to student ratio specified in plumbing codes, and whether plumbing codes allowed substitution of nonplumbed water sources for plumbed fountains. “Widely available” fountain access ranged from 45.7% in the West to 65.4% in the Midwest and was less common where state plumbing codes required 1 fountain per more than 100 students (45.4%) compared with 1 fountain per 100 students (60.1%) or 1 fountain per fewer than 100 students (57.6%).

Conclusion

Interventions designed to increase consumption of water may want to consider the role of plumbing codes in availability of school drinking fountains.


Subjects:
[+]
Adolescent Child Data Collection Drinking Water Humans Original Research Sanitary Engineering Schools
Source:
Prev Chronic Dis. 11.
Pubmed ID:
24742393
Pubmed Central ID:
PMC3992292
Document Type:
Journal Article
Funding:
U48DP001946/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHS/United States
Place as Subject:
United States
Location:
North America
Collection(s):
Preventing Chronic Disease
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:78e721fb1d51fa5ae0d0419e28b6c573a71cbc72d487238a50272e48761d731f
Download URL:
https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/22454/cdc_22454_DS1.pdf
File Type:

Supporting Files

• 	license.txt	txt
  	PCD-11-E60.nxml	txt

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