School Programs in Austria: A Combined Behavioral and Environmental Intervention to Promote Healthy Hydration.

Founded in 2005, the Austrian Special Institute for Preventive Cardiology and Nutrition (SIPCAN) has established the goal of improving nutrition education, behavior, and environment (e.g., beverages offered at vending machines). Due to the existing infrastructure, school staff, facilities, policies, and environments, the school setting provides a logical choice as a context for implementing interventions to promote healthy hydration practices. Thus SIPCAN specializes in developing and implementing school programs focusing on the target group of 10-18-year-old pupils. The education is delivered by an on-staff teacher with whom the school children are familiar, and it is aimed to reach the school children's parents, to reinforce healthier hydration in the home environment. Therefore, no specially trained professionals are required. Additionally, such interventions require a minimum of money, effort, school time, and contain practical lessons regarding healthy nutrition and physical activity. Using achievable goals, the food and drink offered in school cafeterias and vending machines is changed, in a way that the target group is reached in the best possible way and the healthier choice clearly becomes the easier choice. Last year, every third school of the target group attended at least one of these programs. In the school year of 2017/18, SIPCAN influenced 153,000 students (21% of the target group) through various health promoting programs.

Gradual reduction of free sugars in beverages on sale by implementing the beverage checklist as a public health strategy.

Background: Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) are a major source of free sugar intake and contribute to obesity and obesity-related diseases. Therefore, we analyzed the effect of a gradual sugar reduction strategy within the so-called 'beverage checklist' on free sugar content in beverages on sale in Austria. Methods: From 2010 until 2017, data on the amount of free sugar of sweetened beverages (sweetened with sugars, fruit juice and artificial sweeteners) with 0.20-0.75l serving sizes in all main supermarkets and from industry was collected. These data were published annually as the beverage checklist, which displays beverages on sale in Austria. The checklist aims to encourage beverage production with a free sugar content of ≤7.4 g/100 ml and no artificial sweeteners. Results: Free sugar content in the total supply decreased significantly [7.53 (2.86) vs. 6.75 (2.79) g/100 ml; 10.4%; P < 0.001] over time and also in those for which follow-up data were available until 2017 (n = 100) [7.55 (2.46) vs. 7.28 (2.44) g/100 ml; 3.5%; P < 0.001]. The percentage of beverages fulfilling the guiding criteria increased by 12.8% (P < 0.001) and of those containing sweeteners decreased by 13.3% (after 2012; P = 0.034). Conclusions: This public health strategy, conducted by a small non-profit organization, showed a reduction in the mean free sugar content by working with the industry to voluntarily reformulate beverages. More beverages with less added sugar were brought to the market, which implies healthier choices. The challenge now is to further engage the industry and also policy makers to achieve a greater reduction in the future.

Acoustic noise alters selective attention processes as indicated by direct current (DC) brain potential changes.

Acoustic environmental noise, even of low to moderate intensity, is known to adversely affect information processing in animals and humans via attention mechanisms. In particular, facilitation and inhibition of information processing are basic functions of selective attention. Such mechanisms can be investigated by analyzing brain potentials under conditions of externally directed attention (intake of environmental information) versus internally directed attention (rejection of environmental stimuli and focusing on memory/planning processes). This study investigated brain direct current (DC) potential shifts-which are discussed to represent different states of cortical activation-of tasks that require intake and rejection of environmental information under noise. It was hypothesized that without background noise rejection tasks would show more positive DC potential changes compared to intake tasks and that under noise both kinds of tasks would show positive DC shifts as an expression of cortical inhibition caused by noise. DC potential shifts during intake and rejection tasks were analyzed at 16 standard locations in 45 persons during irrelevant speech or white noise vs. control condition. Without noise, rejection tasks were associated with more positive DC potential changes compared to intake tasks. During background noise, however, this difference disappeared and both kinds of tasks led to positive DC shifts. Results suggest-besides some limitations-that noise modulates selective attention mechanisms by switching to an environmental information processing and noise rejection mode, which could represent a suggested "attention shift". Implications for fMRI studies as well as for public health in learning and performance environments including susceptible persons are discussed.