An interventional study of Water filter in Diarrhea, Enteric Pathogens and Gastrointestinal Disease, sponsored by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Recruiting at 2 sites in United States. Open to participants aged 6 Months and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-09.
Sponsored by Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Prevention
The goal of this intervention trial is to learn if the use of drinking water filters will result in improved health outcomes for people living in homes with well water and spring water in rural regions of Central Appalachia.
Consumption of unsafe drinking water is associated with a substantial burden of disease. Tens of millions of people in the United States live in homes with unregulated private wells, primarily in rural regions. However, our understanding of drinking water contaminants and associated health impacts for individuals living in households with private water supply in rural areas of the United States is severely limited by a lack of data - particularly for individuals living in low-income households in rural areas of Appalachia, and in the Central Appalachia region especially.
The overarching goal of this study is to assess the potential of a household-level water treatment intervention for expanding safe water access and improving health outcomes and wellbeing for rural households without utility-supplied water. Investigators will enroll approximately 480 households (approximately 1,600 individuals) that use well water and spring water and conduct a cluster-randomized controlled trial in southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee to evaluate the hypothesized benefits of point-of-use water filtration.
Investigators will undertake the following aims:
This study was designed to rigorously assess the hypothesized benefits of a relatively low-cost and easy to use point-of-use water treatment approach that can also improve the taste of water, and is a less-costly alternative to bottled water. Findings from this study will also substantially improve our understanding of which waterborne and enteric pathogens infants, children, and adults living in households with private water supplies in rural areas of Central Appalachia are exposed to and infected with, enabling more informed estimates of the associated burden of disease for rural populations without utility-supplied water.
877 studies on the registry are indexed under Diarrhea; 76 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 1,584 is above the median of 137 across 738 interventional studies indexed under Diarrhea.
Browse Diarrhea studies →Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University is the lead sponsor of 127 studies on the registry; 28 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Households randomized to the treatment group will receive water filters at the beginning of the study.
Device: Water filter
Households randomized to the control group will receive water filters after follow-up data collection is completed.
Point-of-use multi-stage dispenser water filter with a membrane microfilter and a combined activated carbon and ion exchange filter
Acute gastrointestinal illness incidence
Incidence of household-level acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI), based on individual-level reported 7-day AGI. AGI case definition: reported diarrhea today and/or any day in the last seven days. Individual-level reported fever, nausea, cramps, and vomiting data will also be collected. For those with reported AGI, investigators will also ask if they had three or more loose stools in a 24-hour period.
Time frame: 12 months
Waterborne pathogen infections
Detection of one or more pathogens that are either exclusively waterborne or highly likely to be waterborne via analysis of saliva and stool samples for bacterial, protozoal, and viral targets.
Time frame: 12 months
E. coli or pathogens in water samples
Detection of E. coli in collected well and spring water samples or detection of enteric pathogens in filtered well and spring water samples.
Time frame: 12 months
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.
Contact study teamGet an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University →