ABSTRACT
Objective@#To understand the status on beverages consumption among grade 4 and grade 5 primary school students in six cities of China, and to provide evidence for nutrition education and intervention strategies.@*Methods@#A multi-stage stratified cluster random sampling method was used to select 12 197 grade 4 and grade 5 primary school students from 72 primary schools in Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing, Jinan and Harbin. All the participants were investigated with a self-administered questionnaire survey of dietary behaviors.@*Results@#The proportion of students who consumed beverages at home, school and elsewhere was 92.5%, 51.4% and 70.6% respectively. The most popular beverages at home were milk, fruit & vegetable drinks, tea drinks (69.4%, 46.6%, 39.6%); the most popular beverages at school were milk, fruit & vegetable drinks, tea drinks (30.5%, 13.0%, 12.7%) while the most popular beverages in other places were milk, tea drinks, fruit & vegetable drinks(37.4%, 29.6%, 28.1%). The top five reasons for choosing beverages were taste delicious, healthy & nutritious, clean, choice of peers and family members(72.3%, 50.8%, 38.4%, 21.9%, 21.6%, respectively).@*Conclusion@#Consumption of drinking beverages is popular among students, most of which are unhealthy. Therefore, nutrition education for students and parents should be encouraged aiming to help students choose healthy drinks and eating behaviors.