Systematic review on comparing intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and its effects on risk of obesity between urban and rural citizens

Abstract

Background While obesity rate is increasing globally, the association between obesity and sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) has been arousing public concern. It is believed that urban residents are more accessible to SSB than rural residents and their physical activities may be lower compared to the rural residents. Therefore, urban citizens may have a higher intake of SSB and are more susceptible to the risk of obesity due to SSB consumption. However, relevant studies reported inconsistent results.

Methods Published literature was retrieved from PubMed, CNKI and Google Scholar using the key words of obesity, sugar-sweetened beverages, rural and urban.

Results 12 studies were eligible to be included in this review. Among the 12 included studies, six reported that rural residents consumed more SSB than those in urban areas; four indicated that urban citizens had higher SSB consumption than rural residents; one reported that SSB consumption was higher in rural men and urban women and one reported that students in semi-urban area had high SSB consumption.

Conclusions Most included studies reported that rural residents consumed more SSB than urban residents though few studies reported the opposite results. However, all studies reported a positive association between SSB consumption and risk of obesity in both rural and urban residents. The reasons of higher level of SSB consumption among rural residents may be due to the lack of access to health education and promotion resources, being exposed to more advertisements of SSB and more accessible to SSB.