Cent Eur J Public Health 2023, 31(1):30-37 | DOI: 10.21101/cejph.a7479

Sugar-sweetened beverages and childhood abnormal adiposity in the Czech Republic – narrative literature review

Monika Kunzová^{1, 2}, Geraldo A. Maranhao Neto², Juan P. González-Rivas^{2, 3, 4}

¹ Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic

² International Clinical Research Centre, St. Anne's University Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic

³ Departments of Global Health and Population and Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

⁴ Foundation for Clinic, Public Health, and Epidemiology Research of Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela

Objectives: In Czech children, the burden related to the high body-mass index is rising. In the last three decades, Western eating patterns have influenced Czech children's diet, including the high consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. This narrative review aims to evaluate evidence of the trend of sugar-sweetened beverages consumption in Czech children and its impact on the prevalence of childhood abnormal adiposity.

Methods: A comprehensive literature review in MEDLINE (PubMed) and a hand search using references in identified articles were performed. The inclusion criteria were population-based studies of randomly selected samples of children from 0 to 18 years old, data involving the Czech population, published from 1990 to 2021. The results were organized into three sections - childhood abnormal adiposity, SSBs consumption, and the association between SSBs consumption and abnormal adiposity.

Results: The studies showed a significant increase in abnormal adiposity in both genders and all age categories. The highest prevalence of abnormal adiposity was observed in boys and younger children. On the contrary, sugar-sweetened beverages showed a significant decline in daily consumption among Czech children of both genders and all age categories. No results were found for consequences of abnormal adiposity concerning sugar-sweetened beverages consumption.

Conclusion: Findings from this review could serve public health experts to detect the areas of a gap in research and establish potential interventions in vulnerable groups. Observation of potential obesogenic contributors - including sugar-sweetened beverages - should be an integral part of effective action against the obesity pandemic.

Keywords: sugar-sweetened beverages, soft drinks, abnormal adiposity, children

Received: May 23, 2022; Revised: March 29, 2023; Accepted: March 29, 2023; Published: March 31, 2023  Show citation