The association between sugar sweetened or carbonated beverages and bone mineral density in adolescents taking part in the Fit Futures Study.

Abstract

In the prevention strategies for osteoporosis attention has been directed towards the acquisition of peak bone mass and early life experiences during the adolescent growth period. High consumption of soft drinks during adolescence is believed to influence bone mineral accrual and increase fracture risk later in life. The aim of this study is to investigate if moderate or high consumption of sugar sweetened beverages and carbonated beverages is associated with bone mineral density in adolescents taking part in the Fit Futures study. The thesis is a cross-sectional analysis from Fit Futures 1, a part of the Tromsø Study, including 1st year upper secondary school students. The study included 900 adolescents from the municipality of Tromsø and Balsfjord. Our main outcome, BMD of total body was measured as g/cm2 by dual x-ray absorptiometry. Lifestyle and dietary variables were created from a self-reported questionnaire and interview. Descriptive and unadjusted analysis were first performed to explore the relationship between variables, and then a manual hierarchical block analysis was used to select the most influential predictors to BMD total body. In the main analysis, we used multiple regression to investigate the association between sugar sweetened or carbonated beverages and BMD. The multiple regression analysis was stratified by gender, and adjusted for confounding variables.