Oral Presentation ANZOS-ASLM-ICCR 2019

Australian adolescents’ perceptions of potential policy initiatives to reduce consumption of sugary drinks (#83)

Caroline Miller 1 2 , Joanne Dono 2 3 , Belinda Morley 4 , Kerry Ettridge 2 3
  1. School of Public Health, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  2. Health Policy Centre, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  3. School of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
  4. Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer, Cancer Council Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Introduction: Reducing sugary drink consumption among adolescents is critical. Assessing adolescents’ perceptions of and responses to potential policy options to reduce consumption is integral, as acceptability may contribute to potential effectiveness among this group.

Method: Data were collected as part of the 2018 National Secondary Students’ Diet and Activity survey (N=9102; school years 8-11, age 12-17 years). Questions included: support for 5 potential policy initiatives to reduce sugary drink consumption, gender, age, body mass index, and knowledge of the health effects of consuming sugary drinks.

Results: Preliminary results (unadjusted, bivariate analyses) suggest approximately one third were somewhat/strongly in favour of a sugary drink tax (36%), banning school sales of sugary drinks (30%), and banning TV advertising during children’s viewing times (27%). Support for tax was higher when paired with investment in healthy weight programs (43%), and highest for on-product text labels warning of health effects (52%). Notably, a large proportion were neither for nor against these options (36-47%), rather than somewhat/strongly against (12-28%). There was lower support across all policy options (p<0.001) among males (7-11% absolute difference) and moderate-high (4+ cups/week) consumers (11-20% absolute difference). Perception of health effects (prompted) associated with consumption was high for tooth decay (72%), Type 2 diabetes (69%), weight gain/obesity (68%) and heart disease (53%). Support was significantly higher (p<0.001) among those who believed sugary drink consumption caused weight gain/obesity (17-36% absolute difference), diabetes (17-22% absolute difference), tooth decay (16-39% absolute difference), and heart disease (15-26% absolute difference).

Conclusions: Australian adolescents’ level of acceptance of policy options was substantially lower than Australian adults; however, there was a much higher degree of neutrality in their response. Increasing knowledge of health effects of sugary drinks may increase receptiveness to potential policy measures to reduce consumption, with warning labels presenting a somewhat acceptable educative strategy for this group.