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Epidemiology

Impact of a digital physical activity intervention on reducing sugar-sweetened beverage intake in young childhood cancer survivors

British Journal of Cancer volume 132, pages 583–584 (2025)Cite this article

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To the Editor

We read with interest the article by Lan et al. published in British Journal of Cancer which examined associations between the consumption of sugar and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) with premature aging in adult survivors of childhood cancer [1]. In their cohort of 3322 survivors, associations were observed between total and added sugar intake and premature aging. Their findings demonstrated a high prevalence of excessive sugar intake among survivors aged 18–65 years (46% of survivors consumed SSBs more than once per day), despite survivors being at increased risk because of their treatment exposures and comorbidities. The rate of sugar intake in survivors was similar to or greater than the US general population. High sugar intake and habitual consumption of SSBs were associated with an increased risk of premature aging, regardless of cancer treatment history in survivors. Lan et al. emphasised the potentially detrimental effect of high sugar intake and habitual SSB consumption on aging-related conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Lan et al. suggest limiting SSBs for childhood cancer survivors, including considerations for lifestyle interventions to promote healthy aging in this at-risk population.

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Fig. 1: Proportion of survivors in our study compared to controls (Australian children of similar age) who consume fruit juice and soft drink per week.

Data availability

The datasets from this study are available from the corresponding author, LH, upon reasonable request.

References

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Acknowledgements

We thank the iBounce team for their support and assistance in the pilot intervention. Thank you to all the participants and their families for partaking in the iBounce study.

Funding

LH is supported by The Kids’ Cancer Project. CS is supported by a Cancer Institute NSW Early Career Fellowship (2020/ECF1144). CW is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (APP2008300).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Medicine & Health, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia

    Lauren Ha, Christina Signorelli, Jennifer Cohen, Kristen A. Neville, Claire E. Wakefield & Richard J. Cohn

  2. Behavioural Sciences Unit, Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, Australia

    Lauren Ha, Christina Signorelli, Claire E. Wakefield & Richard J. Cohn

  3. Canteen, Newtown, Australia

    Jennifer Cohen

  4. Department of Endocrinology, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, Australia

    Kristen A. Neville

Authors
  1. Lauren Ha
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  2. Christina Signorelli
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  3. Jennifer Cohen
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  4. Kristen A. Neville
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  5. Claire E. Wakefield
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  6. Richard J. Cohn
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Contributions

LH performed the data collection and analysis. LH, CS, JC, KN, CW, and RC prepared the original draft and were responsible for reviewing and editing the manuscript. LH, CS, JC, KN, CW, and RC approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lauren Ha.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was performed in line with the ethical standards of the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network. The authors received ethical approval from the Sydney Children’s Hospital Network Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/18/SCHN/471).

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Ha, L., Signorelli, C., Cohen, J. et al. Impact of a digital physical activity intervention on reducing sugar-sweetened beverage intake in young childhood cancer survivors. Br J Cancer 132, 583–584 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-025-02965-y

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