Sugar sweetened beverages – psychosocial, behavioral, and dietary determinants, and association to obesity: A cross-sectional study among university students in San Luis Potosí and Yucatán, Mexico

Sammanfattning: Background: Obesity is a rapidly growing public health problem with negative health consequences in Mexico, resulted from the nutrition transition. In Mexico calories from sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) accounts for 19% of total energy intake. Although young adults are major SSB consumers, is an understudied population. Aims: To investigate the association between SSB and obesity as well as associations between various factors and overconsumption of widely consumed SSB in Mexican university students. Methods: This cross-sectional study includes 442 nursing and nutrition students from two universities in Mexico. Demographic, psychological, behavioral, dietary, and SSB intake (soft drinks, agua frescas, juice drinks) data were collected through a self-administrative questionnaire and 24-hour dietary recall. Anthropometric data were measured. Independent t-test and binary logistic regression were used to investigate the associations. Results: Overweight and obese students consumed more soft drinks than normal weight students. Studying nutrition were associated with lower odds of all SSB overconsumption while consuming higher calories were associated with higher odds of all SSB overconsumption. Unhealthy diet patterns were associated with soft drinks overconsumption, but were opposite for agua frescas. Moderate-intensity exercise was associated to decreased soft drinks overconsumption but vigorous-intensity exercise was more likely to increase soft drinks and agua frescas overconsumption Conclusion: Agua frescas were related to better dietary patterns and considered as healthier than other SSB. Future studies need to use better assessment methods for dietary and anthropometric data and distinguish sports beverage from soft drinks for better understanding of association between physical activity and SSB intake.