Drinking water instead of sugar-sweetened beverages is an important obesity prevention strategy. Although schools have taken great strides to improve drinking water access, the water crisis in Flint, Mich., and its aftermath have highlighted the importance of assuring that the water provided in schools is safe to drink. This study will partner with national experts in drinking water quality testing to conduct the first large-scale, representative, cross-sectional study of drinking water quality in schools. The study will leverage a sample of 240 randomly selected California schools that are participating in an ongoing Healthy Eating Research-funded study to evaluate the proportion of schools with drinking water quality violations. The aims of the current study are to: 1) assess the quality of drinking water (by testing for the key contaminants lead, copper, arsenic, nitrate, hexavalent chromium) in food service areas (FSAs) in a representative sample of 240 California public schools; 2) examine school characteristics associated with water quality violations in FSA water sources in California public schools; and 3) understand if school administrators’ report of water quality testing is associated with water quality violations in FSAs.
Start Date: November 2016
ID #: 74133
Principal Investigator: Anisha Patel, MD, MSPH, MSHS
Co-Principal Investigator: Marc Andrew Edwards, PhD, MS
Organization: University of California, San Francisco
Funding Round: Round 10
Age Groups: Adolescents (grades 9 to 12), Elementary-age children (grades K to 5), Young adolescents (grades 6 to 8)
Race/Ethnicity: African American or Black, American Indian, Asian, Latino(a) or Hispanic, Multi-racial/ethnic, White
Focus Areas: Beverages, School & After School
State: California
Resource Type: Grant Summary
Keywords: Nutrition standards, School meal programs, School wellness policies, Sugar-sweetened beverages, Water
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