The Rhinovirus Study : A bedroom heating intervention to reduce rhinovirus infection in children.

A randomised placebo controlled trial of the effect of heating children's bedrooms for an 8-week period over the colder months of the year on preventing rhinovirus caused colds and reducing symptom severity as measured by parental reported cold symptoms and nasal swabs for determining levels of rhinovirus in the nose.

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ANZCTR

Registry ID

ACTRN12614000388617

Enrollment

300

Registered

2014-04-10

Start date

2013-06-10

Completion date

2014-08-20

Last updated

2020-01-13

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

None listed

Brief summary

This is a randomised control trial (RCT) to investigate whether heating the ambient air in children's bedrooms to at least 18C overnight for an eight week period during the colder months of the year will significantly reduce the number cold symptoms they get due to rhinovirus infection compared to the number of cold symptoms experienced by children in the placebo group.

Interventions

Participants are randomly assigned to one of two different interventions - either a 10 minute ultraviolet light (UV) treatment of the walls and surfaces of the child’s bedroom; or a heater is placed in the child’s bedroom for an 8-week period (in April to November), and set to come on at night time to keep the ambient air temperature at 18-22 degrees C. The heaters have thermostat control.

Study design

Allocation

Randomised controlled trial

Intervention model

Parallel

Primary purpose

Prevention

Masking

Blinded (masking used) (Subject, Investigator)

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Age

1 Years to 5 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

At least one cold infection reported in the previous 12 months.

Exclusion criteria

Child lives in more than one house. Child regularly sleeps more than 1 full night per week or more than 2 hours per night) in more than one bedroom. Child's bedroom is heated to 20C for more than 12 hours per day.

Outcome results