IADR Abstract Archives
Drink-up: Determining the nature of children’s beverage environments using wearable cameras
Objectives:
Children’s high consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages presents significant risks for oral health. There is incomplete information about children's beverage environments, and current evidence is based on self-report, which is subject to bias. This study aimed to objectively assess the availability and marketing of beverages in children’s environments, and their beverage purchasing and consumption behaviours, by using wearable cameras for data collection.
Methods: This study used data from the Kids’Cam Project, in which a total of 168 randomly-selected 11-13 year old children (89 girls) from 16 randomly-selected schools in the Wellington region of New Zealand, wore cameras for four days that automatically took pictures every 7s. Instances of non-alcoholic beverage marketing, availability, purchasing and consumption, were coded as core (healthy) and non-core (unhealthy) by setting and beverage type, for one week and one weekend day.
Results: Children were most exposed to marketing for sugary drinks, predominantly product packaging and signage, and mostly in public places and at home. A range of beverages were available to children in most of the settings in which they spent time. Core beverages were the dominant beverages available to children in school and home. By contrast, children had greatest access to non-core beverages in convenience stores and supermarkets, and in excess to core beverages. Children consumed mostly non-core beverages, purchased predominantly from convenience stores.
Conclusions: The findings support the call of WHO and other health authorities to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. In New Zealand, implementing interventions to reduce the marketing and availability of sugar-sweetened beverages in children's environments, such as plain packaging, sugary drinks tax, regulating sugary drinks marketing and requiring healthy beverage policy implementation in settings such as schools and recreational facilities, will likely improve children’s oral health. Given the ubiquity of sugar-sweetened beverages globally, the findings are likely to be of interest in other countries.
Children’s high consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages presents significant risks for oral health. There is incomplete information about children's beverage environments, and current evidence is based on self-report, which is subject to bias. This study aimed to objectively assess the availability and marketing of beverages in children’s environments, and their beverage purchasing and consumption behaviours, by using wearable cameras for data collection.
Methods: This study used data from the Kids’Cam Project, in which a total of 168 randomly-selected 11-13 year old children (89 girls) from 16 randomly-selected schools in the Wellington region of New Zealand, wore cameras for four days that automatically took pictures every 7s. Instances of non-alcoholic beverage marketing, availability, purchasing and consumption, were coded as core (healthy) and non-core (unhealthy) by setting and beverage type, for one week and one weekend day.
Results: Children were most exposed to marketing for sugary drinks, predominantly product packaging and signage, and mostly in public places and at home. A range of beverages were available to children in most of the settings in which they spent time. Core beverages were the dominant beverages available to children in school and home. By contrast, children had greatest access to non-core beverages in convenience stores and supermarkets, and in excess to core beverages. Children consumed mostly non-core beverages, purchased predominantly from convenience stores.
Conclusions: The findings support the call of WHO and other health authorities to reduce the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages. In New Zealand, implementing interventions to reduce the marketing and availability of sugar-sweetened beverages in children's environments, such as plain packaging, sugary drinks tax, regulating sugary drinks marketing and requiring healthy beverage policy implementation in settings such as schools and recreational facilities, will likely improve children’s oral health. Given the ubiquity of sugar-sweetened beverages globally, the findings are likely to be of interest in other countries.