Factors associated with the consumption of soft drinks among adolescents in Yangon City, Myanmar

Abstract

Our objective of this study was to determine the proportion of adolescents who consumed soft drinks and to identify factors associated with soft drink consumption practice among adolescents who resided in No.6 ward, Mayangone Township, Yangon, Myanmar. This analytical cross-sectional study involved a total of 270 participants. Face-to-face interviews and a structured questionnaire were used to collect the data. This questionnaire covered predisposing factors (socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge, attitude), enabling factors (availability, accessibility, and affordability), and reinforcing factors (influencers and soft drinks consumption practice). Average total soft drink consumption was 1505.7 ml/day and energy drink were most consumed (620.2 ml/day) followed by fruit-flavoured drink (355.0 ml/day) and cola drinks (240.7 ml/day). Most participants (60%) had poor knowledge, 31% had fair knowledge and only 8.9% had good knowledge. Regarding attitude towards soft drink, 60.7% of respondents were regarded as having a positive attitude, 30.0% a neutral attitude and 9.2% were considered to have a negative attitude towards soft drinks. We used Chi-square and logistic regression analysis to identify associations between predictors and soft drink consumption practice and found that male adolescents were 2.2 times more likely to consume soft drinks (OR = 2.2, p <0.002) than were females. Adolescents from high-income families were 2.6 times more likely to consume soft drinks than adolescents from low-income families (OR = 2.6, p <0.01), while adolescents from middle-income families had 2 times (OR=2.0, p<0.01) higher odds of consuming soft drinks than those from low-income families. No statistically significant association between enabling factors and reinforcing factors but the results showed that soft drinks are easily available, accessible, affordable and consumption practice was mainly influenced by friends/colleges, online marketing, and celebrity endorsement. IMPLICATION OF THEMATIC PAPER: The implications of this study are as follows: findings suggested that we need a multidisciplinary approach to control the overconsumption of soft drinks. Taxation authority, city development committee, and regulatory and public health authority need to integrate their activities in controlling availability, accessibility, and affordability, as well as promoting the health education relating to knowledge and attitude towards the soft drinks.