The UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy and childhood hospital admissions for asthma in England

Nina T. Rogers (), Steven Cummins, Catrin P. Jones, Oliver T. Mytton, Chrissy H. Roberts, Seif O. Shaheen, Syed Ahmar Shah, Aziz Sheikh, Martin White and Jean Adams
Additional contact information
Nina T. Rogers: University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine
Steven Cummins: Faculty of Public Health & Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Catrin P. Jones: University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine
Oliver T. Mytton: Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health
Chrissy H. Roberts: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Seif O. Shaheen: Queen Mary University of London
Syed Ahmar Shah: University of Edinburgh
Aziz Sheikh: University of Edinburgh
Martin White: University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine
Jean Adams: University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Sugar sweetened beverage consumption has been suggested as a risk factor for childhood asthma symptoms. We examined whether the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL), announced in March 2016 and implemented in April 2018, was associated with changes in National Health Service hospital admission rates for asthma in children, 22 months post-implementation of SDIL. We conducted interrupted time series analyses (2012-2020) to measure changes in monthly incidence rates of hospital admissions. Sub-analysis was by age-group (5-9,10-14,15-18 years) and neighbourhood deprivation quintiles. Changes were relative to counterfactual scenarios where the SDIL wasn’t announced, or implemented. Overall, incidence rates reduced by 20.9% (95%CI: 29.6-12.2). Reductions were similar across age-groups and deprivation quintiles. These findings give support to the idea that implementation of a UK tax intended to reduce childhood obesity may have contributed to a significant unexpected and additional public health benefit in the form of reduced hospital admissions for childhood asthma.

Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-49120-4 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-49120-4

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49120-4

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().