Association between availability of soda at school and soda consumption among US middle and high school students

Introduction: Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages such as soda is associated with significantly increased energy intake and body weight. Although efforts to reduce adolescent soda consumption have often focused on reducing availability in school, research examining associations between in-school availability and student consumption is limited. This paper examines associations between regular and diet soda availability in schools and student consumption using data from 331 secondary schools and 9,515 students.

Methods: Data were obtained from two sources: (a) nationally representative cross-sectional samples of 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students from US public and private schools in 2010 and 2011 (through the Monitoring the Future study); and (b) administrators of the same schools (through the Youth, Education, and Society study). Logistic and linear regression models examined associations between school availability and student consumption controlling for student socio-demographics and school characteristics.

Results: In the total sample of over 9,000 students, school regular and diet soda availability was not significantly related to consumption of these beverages. However, among African American high school students, school diet soda availability significantly related to increased daily diet soda consumption (both before and after controlling for student and school factors; p<.01). A similar but more complex relationship was also observed between school regular soda availability and daily regular soda consumption among African American high school students and will be discussed.

Discussion: Removal of soda from schools may not result in significantly lower overall student consumption. However, removal of soda may result in significant decreases in consumption for specific student groups.