WEDNESDAY, Jan. 8, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Overall, 9.8 percent of all incident type 2 diabetes (T2D) cases and 3.1 percent of incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) cases were attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) worldwide in 2020, according to a study published online Jan. 6 in Nature Medicine.
Laura Lara-Castor, Ph.D., from Tufts University in Boston, and colleagues incorporated data from the Global Dietary Database to estimate SSB-attributed T2D and CVD burdens across 184 countries in 1990 and 2020 globally, regionally, and nationally.
The researchers found that in 2020, 2.2 and 1.2 million new T2D cases and CVD cases, respectively, were attributable to SSBs worldwide, representing 9.8 and 3.1 percent of all incident cases, respectively. Proportional SSB-attributable burdens were higher globally among men than women, for younger than older adults, for higher- than lower-educated adults, and in urban versus rural areas. The highest SSB-attributable percentage burdens were in Latin America and the Caribbean (24.4 percent for T2D and 11.3 percent for CVD) and sub-Saharan Africa (21.5 and 10.5 percent for T2D and CVD, respectively) by world region. Sub-Saharan Africa had the largest proportional increases in SSB-attributable incident T2D and CVD from 1990 to 2020 (+8.8 and +4.4 percent, respectively).
“These findings emphasize the need for targeted interventions, accounting for social inequities and aligned with global health objectives,” the authors write. “While some policies to curb SSB intakes are currently in place in some countries, our study suggests that more work is needed.”
Several authors disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical and health technology industries.
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