Commenly conseumed drinks among Saudi Adolescents Aged 13-15 Years in Riyadh city
The objectives of this study were 1) to investigate the commonly consumed sugared drinks among Saudi adolescents aged 13-15 years in Riyadh and 2) to evaluate the effect of age, gender, and type of school (governmental or private) on the adolescents’ consumption of these drinks. A total of 1034 out of 1200 questionnaires were completed by randomly selected intermediate schools’ students aged 13-15 years in Riyadh city. The questionnaire contained questions related to the sugared drinks consumed by the participants including the consumption of different kinds of sugared drinks, type of favorite for each kind, frequency, and the place of consumption. Sweetened hot drinks, carbonated soft drinks and fruit drinks were the most frequently consumed. Among these drinks, sweetened tea, cola and orange drink were the mostly consumed. At school, fruit drinks and fruit juices were the mostly consumed. Energy drinks and carbonated soft drinks were the mostly consumed outside home and school. The frequent consumption of carbonated soft drinks increases and the frequent consumption of milk decreases as the adolescent grows older. Boys significantly consumed different drinks more frequently than girls and it was noticed that carbonated soft drinks were consumed more often by governmental school students. It can be concluded that the consumption of unhealthy sugared drinks is frequent among Saudi adolescents in Riyadh city. Due to that, dental health providers should be involved in assessing what their patients consume and should be encouraged to work with others to limit the access of sugar-acidic based drinks.
The objectives of this study were 1) to investigate the commonly consumed sugared drinks among Saudi adolescents aged 13-15 years in Riyadh and 2) to evaluate the effect of age, gender, and type…