Association between Cardiovascular Risk in Adolescents and Daily Consumption of Soft Drinks: a Brazilian National Study

Abstract Background: Cardiovascular risk in adolescence is a public health problem that has grown along with the increase in soft drink consumption. Objective: To investigate the association between cardiovascular risk factors and daily consumption of soft drinks in Brazilian adolescents. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, national, school-based study of 36,956 Brazilian adolescents aged 12 to 17 years. Daily soft drink consumption was estimated using a 24-hour dietary recall. Cardiovascular risk was categorized as overweight, obesity, hypertension, hyperglycemia, and dyslipidemia. The survey command of Stata 14.0® was used to analyze data from a complex sample. The chi-square test was used to assess differences in soft drink consumption and other variables in the descriptive analysis. The odds ratio of cardiovascular risk factors and their respective 95% confidence intervals were estimated, considering sociodemographic and behavioral variables in the Mantel-Haenszel model. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: Daily consumption of soft drinks was common among adolescents. A daily serving ≥ 450 mL was significantly associated with overweight and hypertension. Results associated with the consumption of regular soft drinks show the possibility of reverse causality. Consumption of diet soft drinks in adolescence should be considered a cardiovascular risk factor. Conclusion: Daily consumption of soft drinks can be understood as a relevant risk factor in the epidemiological scenario. Improper eating habits are multifactorial in nature and need to be better understood in the context of adolescent health and further explored in national surveys.

Socioeconomic burden of sugar-sweetened beverages consumption in Korea

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Excessive sugar consumption may increase the risk for development of several diseases. Although average dietary sugar intake of Koreans is within the recommended level, an increasing trend has been found in all age groups. This study aimed to evaluate the population attributable fractions (PAF) to dietary sugar for disease and death in Korea, and to estimate the socioeconomic effects of a reduction in dietary sugar. MATERIALS/METHODS: The prevalence of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) overconsumption (≥ 20 g of sugar from beverages) was analyzed using the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2015. Disease-specific relative risks of excessive SSB consumption were obtained through reviewing previous studies. Using the prevalence of SSB overconsumption and each relative risk, PAFs for morbidity and mortality were calculated. Socioeconomic costs of diseases and death attributable to SSB overconsumption were estimated by using representative data on national medical expenditures, health insurance statistics, employment information, and previous reports. RESULTS: Disease-specific PAF to SSB consumption ranged from 3.11% for stroke to 9.05% for obesity and dental caries, respectively. Costs from disease caused by SSB overconsumption was estimated at 594 billion won in 2015. About 39 billion won was estimated to be from SSB consumption-related deaths, and a total of 633 billion won was predicted to have been saved through preventing SSB overconsumption. CONCLUSIONS: Sugars overconsumption causes considerable public burdens, although the cost estimates do not include any informal expenditure. Information on these socioeconomic effects helps both health professionals and policy makers to create and to implement programs for reducing sugar consumption.

Association between Sweet Consumption and Oral Health in European Population

Objective: To evaluate the association between frequency sweet consumption of drink (food) and teeth number, prevalence of dental check-ups and teeth pain in European population. Material and Methods: In this descriptive study, the data was evaluated from Eurobarometer database 72.3. It was involved 30.292 of citizens from EU-27 (European Union) countries in Eurobarometer research. The necessary conditions for the including of European countries in our research were complete information about: (i) frequency of sweet consumption (%) in each EU-27 countries, population percentage who has all natural teeth (%) in each EU-27 countries, (iii) prevalence of dental checkups (%) in each EU-27 countries and (iv) frequency teeth pain in each EU-27 countries. Results: The highest proportion of often teeth pain (9.0%) was in Romania. Positive association between often sweet consumption of drink (food) and often teeth pain was found. Negative association between often sweet consumption of drink (food) and inhabitants' percentage who have all natural teeth was found. Negative association between often sweet consumption of drink (food) and prevalence of dental check-ups was observed. Conclusion: Our results about the impact sweet consumption of drink (food) on oral health are applicable in oral health programs. It is necessary to include more world countries (more European citizens) into linear regression model of oral health.

Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages and Blood Pressure in the United States: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2006

High sugar intake has been suggested to be related to hypertension. To examine the associations between intakes of sugar and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and the prevalence of hypertension, we used the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2003-2006. A total of 3,044 participants aged > or =19 years were included. We calculated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using multivariate logistic regression model. Prevalent hypertension cases were defined as systolic blood pressure (SBP) of > or =140 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) of > or =90 mmHg. In the multivariate adjusted models, we observed no association between sugar consumption and the prevalence of hypertension. In the model where we adjusted for age, gender, NHANES period and BMI, those who consumed > or =3 times per day of sugar-sweetened beverages had an OR of 1.87 (95% confidence interval, CI = 1.06-3.26) for the prevalence of hypertension compared with those who consumed or =3 times per day of sugar-sweetened beverages compared to the <1 time per month (p for trend = 0.33). In conclusion, we found that sugar consumption was not associated with the prevalence of hypertension, however there was suggestion that high sugar-sweetened beverage consumption was associated with high prevalence of hypertension in the US.