Intake of sugar-sweetened non-alcoholic beverages and body mass index: A national sample of chilean school children Ingesta de bebidas azucaradas analcohólicas e índice de masa corporal en escolares chilenos

Objective. To estimate the association between the intake of sugar-sweetened non-alcoholic beverages and body mass index (BMI) in Chilean school children. Materials and methods. Food consumption frequency data were analyzed for school children aged 6 to 18. The association between consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and BMI was estimated by multivariate lineal regression models. Results. Sugar-sweetened beverages are consumed on a daily basis by 92% (95%CI:90-94) of subjects with daily intake medians of 424 mL (p25-p75:212-707). Every extra daily portion of sugar-sweetened beverages consumed by school children aged 6 to 13 is associated with 0.13 BMI z-scores (95%CI:0.04- 0.2;p=0.01). Conclusions. School children consume sugarsweetened beverages daily with intake medians close to 0.5 L. There is an association between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and higher BMI in Chilean school children