No Health Benefits Seen with Small Soda Taxes
Supersizing soft drink taxes may be an effective deterrent to obesity.
April 3, 2010— -- Taxes of a few percent on sugary drinks are unlikely to reduce consumption or improve children's health noticeably, researchers have found.
Health, diet, lifestyle and demographic data from a large study population of schoolchildren indicated that each 1 percent increment in so-called soda taxes reduced kids' mean body mass index (BMI) values by only 0.013 points, according to Roland Sturm of RAND Corp. in Santa Monica, Calif. and colleagues.
Effects on drink consumption overall and in school were also barely detectable.
"Small taxes in the range of existing differentials are unlikely to have visible effects at the population level," the researchers wrote online in Health Affairs.
But Sturm told MedPage Today in a telephone interview that heftier taxes -- such as an 18 percent levy proposed in 2008 in New York state, or a two-cents-per-ounce tax suggested last month by Pittsburgh's mayor -- could have a much more significant effect.
"As the tax increases, the effect will not be proportional," he said. "It will be larger."
Sturm and colleagues also found that small taxes had positive effects in certain subgroups, including African Americans, children already showing signs of excess weight, those from poorer households, and heavy TV watchers.
As a result, they suggested, taxes could still have a useful public health benefit.
But Sturm said their most important effect may simply be increasing revenue, which could be used to fund programs targeting childhood obesity and poor health behaviors.
The analysis used data from the prospective Early Childhood Longitudinal Study and its Kindergarten Cohort, a group of more than 7,000 children first recruited in 1998.
Information on the youngsters' diets, including their consumption of sweetened drinks other than fruit juices, as well as their purchases of such drinks at school, was collected in 2004 when they reached fifth grade.
Height and weight were measured regularly. The data also included sociodemographic information, children's weekly estimated time spent watching TV, and the frequency of vigorous exercise.
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