[Adolescents' attitude toward soft drinks and factors associated with their consumption].

Objective: To evaluate adolescents' attitudes towards soft drinks and identify the underlying factors that are associated with their consumption of such drinks.
Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 213 adolescents aged between 10 and 19years living in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A structured questionnaire was used to assess their socio-demographic and soft drinks consumption-related characteristics, and their attitudes towards soft drinks. Structural equation modelling was employed to identify the potential factors associated with soft drink consumption among adolescents.
Results: More than 80% of the adolescents consumed soft drinks at least once a week. Overall, adolescents had a positive attitude toward soft drinks. Results revealed that adolescent's attitudes, gender, accessibility of soft drinks at school/college, distance from home to shop, outside food intake habit and parents' soft drinks consumption were the factors associated with their consumption of soft drinks.
Conclusion: High proportion of adolescents consumed soft drinks. Thus, a community and individual level nutrition education programme with targeted behaviour change might be helpful to reduce the consumption of sweetened beverages among adolescents.
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