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  • Original Article
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Carbohydrates, glycemic index and diabetes mellitus

Consumption of soft drinks and health-related quality of life in the adult population

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 69, pages 1226–1232 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

Despite the accumulated evidence on the health risks associated with sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), the industry has funded mass communication strategies promoting the idea that soft drinks, including SSB, may represent a source of well-being. This study assessed the association between consumption of soft drinks and health-related quality of life (HRQL), as a proxy of well-being, in the adult population of Spain.

Subjects/Methods:

The cohort was established in 2008–2010 with 8417 individuals representative of the Spanish population aged 18–60 years. Habitual soft drink consumption was assessed with a validated diet history at baseline. HRQL was measured using the SF-12 questionnaire at baseline and in a subsample of 2132 study participants in 2012. The analyses were performed using linear regression and adjusted for the main confounders.

Results:

In cross-sectional analyses at baseline, those who drank ⩾1 serving/day of SSB had a lower (worse) score on the physical composite summary (PCS) of the SF-12 (adjusted linear regression coefficient: −1.08; 95% confidence interval (CI): −1.60 to −0.54) than those who drank <1 serving/week. Results were similar among individuals younger than 35 years (−1.06; 95% CI: −1.79 to −0.32), those who were not dieting (−1.21; 95% CI: −1.80 to −0.62), those who did not lose >5 kg in the previous 4 years (−0.79; 95% CI: −1.87 to 0.29), and in those without morbidity (−1.18; 95% CI: −1.91 to −0.46). Neither SSBs nor artificially sweetened beverages (ASBs) showed an association with the mental composite summary (MCS) of the SF-12. In the prospective analyses, no association was observed between baseline consumption of SSBs or ASBs and the changes in the PCS and MCS score from 2008/2010 to 2012.

Conclusions:

No evidence was found that soft drink consumption has a beneficial effect on either the physical or mental dimensions of HRQL.

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Acknowledgements

Baseline data collection was funded by Sanofi-Aventis. Data collection during follow-up was funded by FIS grants 09/1626 and 09/00104 (Ministry of Health, Spain). Specific funding for this analysis has been obtained from FIS grant 12/1166 and 13/00288 (Ministry of Health, Spain) and ‘Cátedra de Epidemiología y Control del Riesgo Cardiovascular’. The study funders had no role in study design or in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data. The authors have sole responsibility for the manuscript content.

Author contributions

AL analyzed data. All the authors conceived the study, contributed to data interpretation, reviewed the manuscript for important intellectual content and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and IdiPAZ (Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria del Hospital Universitario La Paz), Madrid, Spain

    A Lana, E Lopez-Garcia & F Rodríguez-Artalejo

  2. CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Madrid, Spain

    A Lana, E Lopez-Garcia & F Rodríguez-Artalejo

  3. Department of Medicine, Preventive Medicine and Public Health Area, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain

    A Lana

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  1. A Lana
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Correspondence to E Lopez-Garcia.

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Lana, A., Lopez-Garcia, E. & Rodríguez-Artalejo, F. Consumption of soft drinks and health-related quality of life in the adult population. Eur J Clin Nutr 69, 1226–1232 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2015.103

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