Multimedia Hydration Education During Physical Education in Schoolchildren

NCT07669909 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: CPP SUD N° 0471/2022
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 204
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 2

Brief Summary

Here's a plain-language Brief Summary ready to paste - it follows the PRS lay-language style (short sentences, explains the "why," avoids jargon) and fits well within 5,000 characters: Staying well hydrated helps children stay healthy and concentrate, and it matters most during physical activity. Yet many young children do not drink enough water during physical education (PE) lessons, and some begin the school day already short of fluid. This study tested whether a short, fun teaching programme could help young children learn about hydration and drink more during PE. The programme used slideshows with simple words, pictures, and short animations, delivered by the children's own teacher for 15 minutes at the start of each PE class, once a week for six weeks. The study took place in two public primary schools in Sfax, Tunisia, and involved 204 first-grade children aged 6 to 7 years. Twelve classes took part. Whole classes (not individual children) were placed by chance into one of two groups: six classes received the teaching programme, and six classes continued their usual PE with no hydration lessons. Comparing whole classes in this way is called a cluster-randomized trial. The researchers measured three things each week: how much the children knew about hydration (using a simple yes/no questionnaire), whether they drank water during the PE session, and the small change in each child's body weight across the session, which is an indirect sign of fluid loss. The aim was to see whether learning about hydration in an engaging way actually changes children's drinking behaviour during activity, not just what they know.

Conditions

Hydration; Dehydration; Health Behavior; Drinking Behavior

Keywords

hydration; children; health education; multimedia learning; physical education; behaviour change; COM-B

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (2)

• Change in hydration knowledge

  Hydration knowledge measured with an Arabic adaptation of a validated 22-item awareness questionnaire, scored as a proportion of correct answers from 0 to 1. Analysed as the change from baseline to post-intervention using a cluster-adjusted mixed-effects model with a random intercept for class, adjusted for baseline score, age, and sex.

  Baseline (immediately before session 1) and immediately after session 6 (week 6)

• Proportion of children drinking water during PE

  Proportion of children who drank any water during the PE session, determined by weighing each child's labelled bottle before and after the session (a recorded value of zero denotes non-drinking). Analysed with a cluster-robust logistic model testing the group-by-week interaction across the six sessions.

  Weekly across the six-week intervention (weeks 1 to 6)

Secondary Outcomes (2)

• Volume of water consumed among children who drank

  Weekly across the six-week intervention (weeks 1 to 6)

• Acute within-session body-mass change

  Weekly across the six-week intervention (weeks 1 to 6)

Study Arms (2)

educational group

EXPERIMENTAL

First-grade classes that received the six-week multimedia hydration education programme: a 15-minute teacher-delivered session (slideshow with text, images, and short animations) at the start of each weekly PE class, followed by a standard 60-minute PE session. Six classes; 101 children.

Behavioral: Multimedia hydration education programme

Control group

NO INTERVENTION

First-grade classes that continued their usual 60-minute PE with no hydration-related content. The programme was offered to these classes after the trial for ethical equity. Six classes; 103 children.

Interventions

Multimedia hydration education programme BEHAVIORAL

Six weekly 15-minute multimedia education sessions delivered in Arabic by the regular PE teacher before the physical-activity component of PE, grounded in the Behaviour Change Wheel / COM-B model. Content progressed from foundational hydration concepts to applied drinking behaviour and contextual factors.

educational group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 6 Years - 7 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• Enrolled in a first-grade class at a participating school
• Signed parental/guardian informed consent
• Able to attend all planned data-collection sessions

You may not qualify if:

• Exemption from physical education for medical or injury-related reasons
• Grade repetition
• Absence from one or more data-collection sessions

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The Higher Institute of Sport and Physical Education of Sfax: lead
• University of Sfax: collaborator

Study Sites (2)

cole primaire Cité El Habib 1

Sfax, Sfax Governorate, 3018, Tunisia

Location

cole primaire Cité El Habib 1

Sfax, 3018, Tunisia

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Dehydration; Health Behavior; Drinking Behavior; Health Education

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Water-Electrolyte Imbalance; Metabolic Diseases; Nutritional and Metabolic Diseases; Pathologic Processes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms; Behavior; Adherence Interventions; Medication Adherence; Patient Compliance; Patient Acceptance of Health Care; Treatment Adherence and Compliance

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Masking Details: Outcome assessors and the data analyst were blinded to group allocation; questionnaires were scored from anonymised, identification-coded forms. Children and teachers could not be blinded given the educational nature of the intervention.
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Model Details: luster-randomized design. Intact first-grade classes were the unit of randomization (12 clusters, 6 per arm), and the individual child was the unit of analysis.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: June 21, 2026
• First Posted: June 25, 2026
• Study Start: February 7, 2025
• Primary Completion: April 2, 2025
• Study Completion: April 2, 2025
• Last Updated: June 25, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-06

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: Available beginning 6 months after publication of the main results, with no specified end date.
• Access Criteria: De-identified individual participant data and the supporting documents indicated above will be made available to qualified researchers who provide a methodologically sound proposal. Requests should be directed to the principal investigator and are subject to institutional approval and a signed data-sharing agreement. Approved requesters will receive the data and documents by secure electronic transfer.

Locations

TU (2)