Examining associations between school food environment characteristics and sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among Canadian secondary-school students in the COMPASS study. Issue 11 (21st May 2018) - Godin, Katelyn M
Abstract: Objective: To examine associations between Canadian adolescents' sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption and several school food environment characteristics, and to investigate differences in these characteristics between schools in provinces with voluntary (Alberta) v . mandatory (Ontario) provincial school nutrition policies. Design: We used a questionnaire to assess the number of weekdays participants consumed three SSB categories (soft drinks, sweetened coffees/teas, energy drinks) and various sociodemographic and behavioural characteristics. We examined the in-school water fountain accessibility, vending machines' contents and presence of various food outlets within schools' 1 km buffer. We developed hierarchical Poisson regression models to identify associations between student- and school-level characteristics and students' SSB outcomes. Setting: Alberta and Ontario, Canada. Subjects: Adolescents ( n 41 829) from eighty-nine secondary schools. Results: Compared with their Ontarian counterparts, Albertan participants had a significantly higher rate of SSB intake across all drink categories and SSB availability was significantly greater in Albertan schools' vending machines. Availability of sweetened coffees/teas in school vending machines and access to restaurants within the school's 1 km buffer were associated with increased SSB intake in three of the final models. Overall, the school food environment-level characteristics examined had a modest to negligible impact on student days of SSB intake. Conclusions: We identified that the school food environment characteristics examined here had little impact on adolescents' days of SSB consumption. While schools should adopt or maintain a comprehensive policy approach to discourage students' SSB intake, population-level interventions focusing on other contexts (e.g. home and community) are needed to complement existing school-based interventions.