Objective: To determine the sociodemographic, economic, and behavioral factors related to sugar-sweetened beverage consumption in children aged 5 to 17 years in Colombia. Methods: Cross-sectional study using the database of the 2022 National Quality of Life Survey carried out in Colombia. 55,396 records of children aged 5 to 17 were included; they were selected through probabilistic sampling. The relationship between the variables and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption was analyzed with Poisson regression models, sensitivity analysis, and multivariate regression models. Results: The prevalence of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption is 75.86%. This consumption grows between 0.5% and 0.6% with increasing age (RPa = 1.005; 95% CI = 1.003–1.006). Packaged food intake raises sugar-sweetened beverage consumption between 52% and 57% (RPa = 1.55; 95% CI = 1.52–1.57). People living in the Central and Pacific regions consume less sugar-sweetened beverages, between 4% (RPa = 0.98; 95% CI = 0.96–1.00) and 6% (RPa = 0.97; 95% CI = 0.94–0.99), than those who live in the Orinoquia-Amazonia region. Conclusion: The results highlight the importance of taking into account sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics when designing public health programs and policies, which is essential to counter the high prevalence of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among children and adolescents in Colombia.
Romo et al. (Wed,) studied this question.