Trinies Victoria, Chard Anna N, Mateo Tommy, Freeman Matthew C
Department of Environmental Health, Rollins School of Environmental Health, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.
FHI 360, Schools Promoting Learning Achievement through Sanitation and Hygiene (SPLASH), Lusaka, Zambia.
PLoS One. 2016 Mar 7;11(3):e0150071. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0150071. eCollection 2016.
There is a well-established link between hydration and improved cognitive performance among adults, with evidence of similar findings among children. No trials have investigated the impact of water provision on cognitive performance among schoolchildren in hot and arid low-resource settings. We conducted a randomized-controlled trial in five schools with limited water access in Chipata district in Eastern province, Zambia, to assess the efficacy of water provision on cognition. Pupils in grades 3-6 were randomly assigned to either receive a bottle of drinking water that they could refill throughout the day (water group, n = 149) or only have access to drinking water that was normally available at the school (control group, n = 143). Hydration was assessed in the morning before provision of water and in the afternoon through urine specific gravity (Usg) measured with a portable refractometer. In the afternoon we administered six cognitive tests to assess short-term memory, concentration, visual attention, and visual motor skills. Morning prevalence of dehydration, defined as Usg≥1.020, was 42%. Afternoon dehydration increased to 67% among the control arm and dropped to 10% among the intervention arm. We did not find that provision of water or hydration impacted cognitive test scores, although there were suggestive relationships between both water provision and hydration and increased scores on tests measuring visual attention. We identified key improvements to the study design that are warranted to further investigate this relationship.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01924546.
成人的水合作用与认知能力提升之间存在已确立的联系，儿童中也有类似发现的证据。尚无试验研究在炎热干旱的资源匮乏地区为学童提供水对其认知能力的影响。我们在赞比亚东部省奇帕塔区五所供水有限的学校开展了一项随机对照试验，以评估供水对认知的效果。三至六年级的学生被随机分为两组，一组每天可领取一瓶饮用水并可随时补充（饮水组，n = 149），另一组只能饮用学校常规供应的水（对照组，n = 143）。在上午供水前和下午通过便携式折射仪测量尿比重（Usg）来评估水合状态。下午，我们进行了六项认知测试，以评估短期记忆、注意力、视觉注意力和视觉运动技能。上午脱水患病率（定义为Usg≥1.020）为42%。下午，对照组的脱水率升至67%，干预组则降至10%。尽管在提供水和水合状态与测量视觉注意力的测试得分增加之间存在提示性关联，但我们并未发现供水或水合状态对认知测试分数有影响。我们确定了对研究设计的关键改进，有必要进一步研究这种关系。
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01924546。
