Kids who go to schools where sugary drinks are readily available from vending machines or cafeterias are more likely not only to drink them but also to be obese, a new University of B.C. study shows.

The findings in the study of 29,315 students in Grades 7 to 12 prompted researchers to conclude that schools should get better at creating environments more conducive to healthy eating. Adolescents consume about 40 per cent of their daily dietary intake while at school.

The study was based on self-reported information in the 2008 B.C. Adolescent Health Survey, which is administered by the McCreary Centre Society every five years and is meant to get a snapshot of B.C. youth health.

The study, published today in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, follows earlier work that showed junk food is widely available in high schools and, when it’s there, kids are more likely to consume it.

Students in the study were an average age of 15. Nearly 13 per cent were categorized as overweight and about 4 per cent were obese, based on body mass index charts (BMI).

Highlights of the study:

• 42 per cent of students said they’d consumed a sugar-sweetened beverage in the previous day.

• 43 per cent of schools indicated that students had access to such beverages.

• The odds of consuming sweetened drinks were 1.15 times higher in schools that carried them, compared to those that didn’t.

• Students at schools located in communities with higher rates of post-secondary education had healthier eating habits, as did girls.

• Students going to suburban or rural schools were more likely (1.37 times) to be overweight, or obese (1.52 times) compared to urban schools.

• Students had a greater chance of being obese (1.50 times) in schools that carried such drinks and were 1.66 times more likely to be obese if they also consumed more than one such drink the previous day.

Lead author Louise Masse, of the School of Population and Public Health, said anti-junk food provincial policies implemented in 2008 are starting to have a positive impact in schools. An as-yet unpublished study by UBC researchers will show that B.C. schools are starting to offer less junk food, in accordance with recent guidelines.

“But you still hear schools using the excuse that kids can still get all these things outside of school. We hope they see themselves as role models and that, as this research shows, there is an association between availability, consumption and obesity.”

Sun Health Issues Reporter

pfayerman@vancouversun.com

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