MARCH – APRIL 2023
See full newsletter
Two recent works show our effort and commitment to reducing the consumption of this type of beverage and can provide support for the implementation of public policies in Latin America and the Caribbean.
To promote public health policies, it is essential to have rigorous information that supports the need for these interventions and that also serves as a “baseline” to eventually document the impact of different measures adopted. The case of sugary drinks is a good example of the virtuous articulation between the generation of evidence by researchers and the promotion or implementation of legislation aimed at preventing the adverse health, economic and social consequences derived from their consumption.
At the IECS, we have been working since 2018 on research aimed at producing, synthesizing, documenting and disseminating in plainer language evidence on the burden of disease and economic cost attributable to the consumption of sugary drinks, the most successful strategies for front labeling and regulation of advertising, promotion and sponsorship, the impact of increased taxes and the effectiveness of educational measures and modification of the school environment in reducing consumption. Some of this work has helped to justify and allow the sanction in Argentina of the Act 27.642 “Promotion of healthy eating”, popularly known as “front labeling law”, as well as the progress of similar projects in other countries in the region.
Two recent works chart our effort and commitment along these lines and may provide additional support to policy interventions that many countries are struggling to implement or defend from attacks by interested parties.
On the one hand, through an exhaustive review of the literature and a modeling that allows estimating numbers of diseases and costs attributable to consumption in Argentina, Brazil, El Salvador and Trinidad and Tobago, we were able to estimate that drinking sodas, juices, flavored waters and beverages Energizers and sports with sugar can be attributed per year to 4,3 million cases of excess weight in girls, boys, adolescents and adults, 2,2 million cases of type 2 diabetes in adulthood, as well as 18.000 deaths. In the four countries analyzed, the direct costs of treating these and other diseases attributable to sugary drinks (from heart disease to kidney damage and asthma) rise to 2 billion dollars in adulthood. The study was published in BMJ Open.
On the other hand, in a joint initiative with the InterAmerican Heart Foundation (FIC), The National University of Río Negro (UNRN), the Ramon Carillo Hospital of Bariloche and the CIESP (an executing unit of CONICET in the IECS), We were able to project that the effective application of the “front labeling law” could reduce the consumption of sugary drinks in Argentina by almost 24%, which will prevent in the short term more than 100.000 cases of overweight and obesity in girls, boys and adolescents, and in the long term. term more than 300.000 cases of overweight, obesity and other various pathologies in adulthood. All this could imply a saving of 26.530 million Argentine pesos in the health system.
To disseminate the results of this work we made infographics (material available here), we carried out a press dissemination campaign (see here) and we participated in a event co-organized with FIC, in which the results were analyzed and a prominent panel of experts explored the barriers and facilitators for the implementation of the Healthy Eating Promotion Law (PAS) in relation to the prohibition of advertising, promotion and sponsorship of beverages sugary
In summary, the high consumption of sugary drinks is a true public health problem that requires urgent action based on evidence to confront it. And we are proud to make a contribution at that level together with other civil society actors.
Dr. Andrea Alcaraz, coordinator of Health Technology Assessment at the IECS.