Premium
Sugary drink consumption behaviours among young adults at university
Author(s) -
O'LEARY Fiona,
HATTERSLEY Libby,
KING Lesley,
ALLMANFARINELLI Margaret
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
nutrition and dietetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.479
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1747-0080
pISSN - 1446-6368
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-0080.2012.01583.x
Subject(s) - consumption (sociology) , medicine , soft drink , environmental health , population , promotion (chess) , health promotion , demography , food science , public health , biology , social science , nursing , sociology , politics , political science , law
Aim: Sugary drink consumption is associated with weight gain, and young adults are the highest consumers. To inform a university healthy beverage intervention, we studied the settings and the types and amounts of sugary drinks consumed by a sample drawn from the student population. Methods: Fifty university students (24 male) were recruited to keep records of all beverages consumed over four consecutive days. The records were analysed by gender, drink category and consumption setting. Results: Males drank marginally more sugary drinks than females (median daily intake of 526 mL compared with 300 mL, P = 0.06). Median energy intake from sugary drinks was 928 kJ for males and 481 kJ for females. Carbonated soft drinks and fruit‐based drinks accounted for 64% of energy from sugary drinks for males; and fruit and sweetened milk‐based drinks accounted for 68% of energy for females. Half of all sugary drink consumption occurred at home followed by social settings. Conclusion: Health promotion programmes aiming to reduce sugary drink consumption in this group would benefit from gender‐differentiated strategies with respect to types of drinks consumed with a focus on the home and social settings.