Dr. Liang Wang Publishes Article in Pediatric Obesity

Dr. Liang Wang, Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology in the East Tennessee State University College of Public Health, has co-authored an article in the Pediatric Obesity. The article, “Projecting the impact of a nationwide school plain water access intervention on childhood obesity: a cost–benefit analysis”, aims to project the societal cost and benefit of an expansion of a water access intervention that promotes lunchtime plain water consumption by placing water dispensers in New York school cafeterias to all schools nationwide. 

Co-authors include Dr. Ruopeng An, an assistant professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Hong Xue, an assistant professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Dr. Youfa Wang, John and Janice Fisher Endowed Chair in Wellness at Ball State University. 

As the prevalence of childhood obesity grows, cost-effective strategies are needed to prevent and reverse trends in the United States. The costs for placing water dispensers in school cafeterias at lunch included water dispenser purchase and maintenance. The benefits were cases of childhood overweight and obesity prevented and corresponding lifetime direct and indirect costs saved. 

The estimated cost of access to this intervention is $18 per student, and the corresponding benefit is $192, resulting in a net benefit of $174 per student. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, overweight adults increase their annual medical costs by $350, and this increases to $1,500 annually if a person is obese. Nationwide adoption of the intervention would prevent around half a million cases of childhood overweight, resulting in a lifetime cost savings totaling $13.1 billion. 

This intervention could see permanent reductions in the incidence of adults who are overweight or obese, as well as decreased medical and indirect costs such as absenteeism and reduced productivity. Dr. Liang Wang and co-authors found that when water dispensers were placed in school cafeterias, students’ consumption of water at lunchtime tripled. The increase in water consumption was associated with small but significant declines in their risks of being overweight one year later. Additionally, increasing water consumption is associated with a decrease in saturated fat and sugar intake. 

The long-term savings of this intervention compares favorably with other obesity prevention policies, such as the sugar-sweetened beverage tax and the enforcement of nutrition standards for snacks sold in schools. If adopted nationwide, this water access intervention in schools may have a considerably favorable benefit-cost portfolio. 

Pediatric Obesity is a peer-reviewed, bi-monthly journal devoted to research into obesity during childhood and adolescence. The topic is of increasing concern to health policy-makers and the public at large.