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Types of beverages consumed by university students

Abstract:

Background: There is a difference between drinking water and water-containing drinks (soft drinks, sugary juices or alcoholic beverages). The consumption of these beverages is related to the development of chronic diseases (obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension or dyslipidemia). The objective is to determine the frequency of consumption of different types of drinks of students at the University of Alicante. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional study. From a population of 26,273 students, a sample of 396 was selected by simple random sampling. Frequency questionnaire was used to estimate beverage consumption, including as variables beverages (n = 12) and frequency of consumption (n = 4). Results: 29.6% of men and 13.0% of women consumed sugary soft drinks daily (p-value <0.001). Daily consumption of wine is null. The 41.4% of the population consumed beer and spirits weekly. 76.1% of men and 58.7% of women consumed alcohol at least once a week, p-value = 0.001. Conclusions: The results suggest the need for epidemiological studies to guide the development of nutrition policies aimed at reducing consumption of sugary drinks and alcohol among young people through a partnership between government authorities, media, food industry and society in general.