According to a new study, the health warning labels on sugar sweetened beverages (SSB's) may deter parents from buying these beverages for their children, CNN reports.
The study was published in the journal Pediatrics.
"In light of the childhood obesity epidemic and studies suggesting that more than half of children under the age of 11 drink SSBs on a daily basis, there is a growing concern about the health effects associated with consumption of these beverages," said lead author Christina Roberto, PhD, an assistant professor of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at Penn Medicine, according to Science Daily.
"Some states have introduced bills requiring SSBs to display health warning labels, but to date, there is little data to suggest how labels might influence purchasing habits, or which labels may be the most impactful."
For the study, the researchers asked 2,381 parents to complete online surveys in which they selected a drink for their child from among 20 choices.
The parents were also asked questions about the healthiness of the beverages.
The researchers found that parents were less likely to choose a drink for their child if those drinks had health-warning labels.
The study showed that forty percent of the parents who saw the health warning labels bought the sugary drink, as compared with 53% of the parents who saw the calorie label and 60% of those who were given no labels.
"We are trying to make a link between the high sugar content and the calories and the actual downstream outcomes [of sugary drinks]. You can say that something has 18 or 24 grams of sugar, but most people have no clue what a gram is," said David Hammond, professor in the school of public health at the University of Waterloo in Ontario.
"[Health warning labels] provide an extra layer of information that people can understand," added Hammond, who led the research.
This study suggests labels may have the desired effect to reduce the consumption of sugary drinks, and may therefore give policy makers the incentive to pass these bills.
The researchers focused on parents of children ages 6 to 11. It is essential to look at how parents select foods for children in this age group because "the typical 6- or 7-year-old is not walking into a store and buying their own beverage," Hammond said.
The study found that health warning labels also made the parents say that they were less likely to buy these drinks in the future.
The study also noted that 73% of the parents supported a government policy that required health-warning labels on sugary drinks.
