Excessive consumption of soft drinks, particularly sugar-sweetened beverages, is linked with weight gain in children and adolescents; however, there is limited data available on the association of soft drink consumption with the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adolescents. A study by Hu H et al., recently published in the journal “JAMA Network Open”, reported a significant association between daily consumption of soft drinks and high prevalence of overweight and obesity in adolescents.
This was a cross-sectional study including 4,05,528 school-going adolescents (mean age: 14.2 years; 48.4% males) based on the data of 3 school-based surveys across 107 countries and regions, viz., the Global School-Based Student Health Survey (2009–2017; 61 surveys), the European Health Behavior in School-Aged Children study (2017–2018; 45 surveys), and the US Youth Risk Behavior Survey (2019; survey). The study evaluated the association of soft drink consumption with overweight and obesity among school-going adolescents using country-level and individual-level data. Soft drink consumption was recorded as daily consumption (1 or more times per day) or nondaily consumption (never or less than 1 time per day).Overweight and obesity defined by the World Health Organization Growth Reference Data was the primary outcome. If the body mass index values of participants were more than 1 standard deviation (SD) above the age-specific and sex-specific median, they were classified as overweight and if they were more than 2 SDs above the median, they were classified as obese.
Association between the prevalence of daily soft drink consumption and that of overweight and obesity across countries and among individuals was determined by linear regression models. The primary study results are summarized below:
- Among the total participants, about 17.2% were overweight or obese.
- Countries and regions with soft drink taxes had marginally higher population-weighted prevalence of overweight and obesity among participants vs. those without soft drink taxes (17.4% vs. 16.3%; p = 0.05). Also, countries with soft drink taxes had lower weighted prevalence of daily soft drink consumption among participants vs. those without soft drink taxes (30.2% vs. 33.5%; p<0.001).
- A positive correlation was noted between the prevalence of daily soft drink consumption and that of overweight and obesity (p <0.001).
- A 3.7% increase in the country-level prevalence of overweight and obesity was noted for an increase of 10% in the prevalence of daily soft drink consumption among the participants, after adjusting for multiple covariates (Graphic A).
- Daily soft drink consumption accounted for 12.4% of the variation in the overweight and obesity rate among countries.
- In individual-level data analysis, there was a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity among participants who consumed soft drinks daily compared to those who did not consume them daily (odds ratio: 1.14; Graphic B).
- Countries with soft drink taxes had a slightly weaker association of daily soft drink consumption with overweight and obesity compared with those without taxes (Graphic B).
Clinical implications
- The study findings highlight the need to prioritize measures to reduce soft drink consumption in combating overweight and obesity among adolescents.
- The study suggests actions such as levying taxes on soft drinks by the government, especially those in low-income and middle-income countries,to lower soft drink consumption, or reduce the amount of sugar consumed from soft drinks, thereby curbing the rapid rise in obesity.
- There is also a need to reduce the saturated fat and calorie intake and increase physical activity levels to effectively reduce the burden of obesity among adolescents.
(Source: Hu H, Song J, MacGregor GA, He FJ. Consumption of soft drinks and overweight and obesity among adolescents in 107 countries and regions. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6(7):e2325158. Doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.25158)