Water Dispensers In NYC Schools May Help With Weight Loss

New findings published in JAMA Pediatrics reveal that making water more available in New York City public schools through self-serve water dispensers in cafeterias helped students with weight loss.

The findings are based on an analysis of one million students in 1,227 elementary and middle schools across the city, is the first research to establish a link between schools with water dispensers, known as "water jets" and weight loss.

Though New York City public schools have stopped allowing the sale of sugar-sweetened beverages before the study began, students can still bring them to school--and the findings suggest that water would server as the healthier substitute against drinks like chocolate milk, etc.

"This study demonstrates that doing something as simple as providing free and readily available water to students may have positive impacts on their overall health, particularly weight management," said study senior investigator Brian Elbel, PhD, MPH, an associate professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone and NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. "Our findings suggest that this relatively low-cost intervention is, in fact, working."

In 2009, New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Department of Education began introducing water jets -- large, clear electronically powered jugs with a push lever for dispensing water -- into schools. Each water jet costs about $1,000, according to the study. Researchers noted that about 40 percent of schools received a water jet over the course of the study period, including the academic school years 2008-2009 through 2012-2013. 

Researchers compared BMI and overweight status for all students before and after the introduction of the water jets into the schools. Findings revealed that schools with water jets showed a reduction in standardized body mass index (zBMI) of .025 for boys and .022 for girls, compared to students at schools without water jets. Adoption of water jets also was associated with a .9 percentage point reduction in the likelihood of being overweight for boys and a .6 percentage point reduction for girls.

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