Half of U.S. Kids Don't Drink Enough Water, Study Says

A new study shows that more than half of children and adolescents in the United States are not drinking enough water.

—Boys were 76% more likely to be dehydrated than girls, and non-Hispanic blacks were 34% more likely to be dehydrated than non-Hispanic whites.

“The good news is that this is a public health problem with a simple solution,” senior author Steven Gortmaker, professor of the practice of health sociology, said in a release. “If we can focus on helping children drink more water–a low-cost, no-calorie beverage–we can improve their hydration status, which may allow many children to feel better throughout the day and do better in school.”

The researchers looked at data from 2009-2012 from more than 4,000 children and adolescents ages 6 to 19, examining urine concentration to determine hydration. The data was from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, an annual study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Write to Tessa Berenson at tessa.berenson@time.com.