Loading...
Promoting Water Consumption on a Caribbean Island: An Intervention Using Children’s Social Networks at Schools
Franken, Saskia Smit, Crystal R. Buijzen, Moniek
Smit, Crystal R.
Buijzen, Moniek
Keyword
Aruba
Caribbean
Children
Health
PROCESS moderation analysis
Social norms
Cluster randomized control trial
Social network
Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption
Water consumption
Caribbean
Children
Health
PROCESS moderation analysis
Social norms
Cluster randomized control trial
Social network
Sugar-sweetened beverage consumption
Water consumption
Location research
Aruba
Date
2018
Language
English
ISSN
1660-4601
ISBN
Collections
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Abstract
Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption and the associated childhood obesity are major concerns in the Caribbean, creating a need for interventions promoting water consumption as a healthy alternative. A social network-based intervention (SNI) was tested among Aruban children to increase their water consumption and behavioral intention to do so and, consequently, to decrease SSB consumption and the associated behavioral intention. In this study, the moderating effects of descriptive and injunctive norms were tested. A cluster randomized controlled trial was completed in schools (mean age = 11 years ± SD = 0.98; 54% girls). Children were assigned to the intervention group (IG; n = 192) or control group (CG; n = 185). IG children were exposed to peer influencers promoting water consumption and CG children were not. Regression analyses showed that water consumption increased for IG children with a high injunctive norm score (p = 0.05); however, their intention to consume more water remained unchanged (p = 0.42). Moreover, IG children showed a decrease in SSB consumption (p = 0.04) and an increase in their intention to consume less SSB (p = 0.00). These findings indicate that SNIs are a promising instrument for health behavioral changes for Aruba and other islands in the Caribbean region.
Citation
Franken, S. C. M., Smit, C. R., & Buijzen, M. (2018). Promoting Water Consumption on a Caribbean Island: An Intervention Using Children's Social Networks at Schools. International journal of environmental research and public health, 15(4), 713. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15040713
Sponsorship
The University of Aruba funded this research. Authors Crystal R. Smit and Moniek Buijzen are affiliated with the research program “MyMovez: Social Network Implementation of Health Campaigns”, funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ ERC grant agreement n° 617253.
Publisher
MDPI
Journal
Target group
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14473/914
DOI
10.3390/ijerph15040713