Soft drink consumption in 4th graders and its relationship with overweight and obesity

Abstract

Introduction: overweight and obesity is a highly prevalent problem in children in Uruguay. Frequent soft drinks consumption may be one of its determining factors.

Objective: to determine the prevalence of overweight/obesity in school children and to evaluate their relation with the consumption of certain drinks.

Material and methods: descriptive, cross-sectional, multicenter study, including 4th graders from public schools from Montevideo, Libertad and San José de Mayo cities. A survey was conducted on frequency of consumption of: water, dairy products and soft drinks. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was described and the nutritional status was related to the frequency of consumption of the different drinks.

Results: 464 children were included in the study; 131 were overweight (28.2%) and 66 (14.2%) obese. Water was occasionally consumed by 10.1% of children, frequently by 14.0% and very frequent by 75.9%. Dairy products were occasional consumed by 11.4%, frequent by 12.9% and very frequently by 75.6%. Soft drinks were occasionally consumed by 41.8% of children, frequently by 33.6% and very frequently by 24.6%. Drink consumption was not associated to a higher prevalence of overweight/obesity.

Conclusions: the prevalence of overweight/obesity in the studied population was high. A significant percentage of children met the recommendations for water and dairy consumption. A high proportion of children consumed soft drinks frequently. Although there was no association between the consumption of soft drinks and the development of overweight/obesity, it is very important to reinforce on the importance of adopting good eating habits, and to work on correcting inappropriate ones, what will contribute to the prevention of the disease.