Sugar-sweetened beverages, serum uric acid, and blood pressure in adolescents.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate whether sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, a significant source of dietary fructose, is associated with higher serum uric acid levels and blood pressure in adolescents.


METHODS
We analyzed cross-sectional data from 4867 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1999-2004. Dietary data were assessed from 24-hour dietary recall interviews. Sugar-sweetened beverages included fruit drinks, sports drinks, soda, and sweetened coffee or tea. We used multivariate linear regression to evaluate the association of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption with serum uric acid and with blood pressure.


RESULTS
Adolescents who drank more sugar-sweetened beverages tended to be older and male. In the adjusted model, serum uric acid increased by 0.18 mg/dL and systolic blood pressure z-score increased by 0.17 from the lowest to the highest category of sugar-sweetened beverage consumption (P for trend, .01 and .03, respectively).


CONCLUSIONS
These results from a nationally representative sample of US adolescents indicate that higher sugar-sweetened beverage consumption is associated with higher serum uric acid levels and systolic blood pressure, which may lead to downstream adverse health outcomes.
Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. nguyens@peds.ucsf.edu
Stephanie
S
Nguyen
Hyon K
HK
Choi
Robert H
RH
Lustig
Chi-yuan
CY
Hsu
D000293:Adolescent; D001741:Black or African American; D001628:Beverages / Q000009:adverse effects*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D004032:Diet; D002149:Energy Intake; D005260:Female; D005632:Fructose / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000097:blood / Q000139:chemically induced; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D013549:Sweetening Agents / Q000009:adverse effects*; D014527:Uric Acid / Q000097:blood*
D013549:Sweetening Agents; D014527:Uric Acid; D005632:Fructose