INTRODUCTION: There is a rise in childhood obesity and this increase may be attributed to widespread consumption of sugar–sweetened beverages (SSB). There is a lack of current data in adolescents regarding the effects of consumption of SSB to the health and physical fitness indices of adolescents in Singapore.
PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of the consumption of SSB intake on body fat percentage (fat%), body mass index (BMI), and aerobic fitness (AF) of adolescents in Singapore.
METHODS: 1457 students (Male n=762, Female n=695, age=13.8±0.98 years, height=159.5±8.79 cm, weight=51.5±13.19 kg) from different schools in Singapore participated in this study. To determine frequency of consumption of SSB during the week, a questionnaire was administered. Bio-impedance body measurements were used to determine body fat% and a modified 15-meter pacer test for youths was used to measure AF.
RESULTS: An independent-sample t-test revealed significant differences for male and female adolescents for BMI, fat%, AF except for the frequency of consumption of SSB (Male: BMI 20.4±4.62 kg.m-2, Female: BMI 19.8±3.87 kg.m-2, p=.013), (Male: fat% 17.8±10.8, Female: fat% 25.7±7.4, p=.00), (Male: AF 48.8±24.83 stages, Female: AF 29.5±13.05 stages, p=.00), (Male: SSB 2.92 ± 1.169 days, Female: SSB 2.94 ± 1.146 days, p=.747) ANOVA analysis indicated no significant effects with frequency of consumption of SSB on BMI (20.1±4.10 kg.m-2, p=.751), fat% (21.5±10.16, p=.857), and AF (31.6±22.3 stages, p=.18). A Pearson correlation coefficient on the total cohort, revealed no significant correlations between the frequency of consumption of SSB (2.93±1.15 days) to fat% (r=.006, p=.81), BMI (r=.028, p=.28), except for AF which had a low significant correlation of r=.054 (p=.04).
CONCLUSION: Results indicated no significant effect of the number of days for consumption of SSB on the body fat%, BMI, and AF of adolescents in Singapore. The consumption of high calories via SSB among adolescents may not be one of the major factors attributing to the increase in obesity in Singapore. However SSB can be a contributing factor with other factors such as food, genetics, daily activities which affects obesity with different extent as obesity is a multi factorial disease.
Funded by National University of Singapore Global Asia Institute NIHA Research Grant (NIHA-2011-1-007)
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