Adolescents’ use of energy drinks and caffeine induced health complaints in Finland

Abstract

Conclusions These findings stress the need to develop investigations on these topics in student population, to have a better understanding of these new phenomena and to assess the interactions with other risk comportments (alcohol, cannabis). Key messages Alcohol, tobacco and cannabis consumption are well documented as relevant public health topics in student populations ; but new risk comportment are today challenging. New research areas are required to investigate the impact of these new risk behaviours on students and their future professional careers. Background Across Europe, tobacco use is more prevalent among secondary school students attending vocational tracks compared with students attending non-vocational tracks, leading to smoking educational inequalities. However, little is known about the contribution of social ties on these smoking inequalities. The purpose of this paper was to identify the contribution of peer effects on smoking inequalities among adolescents aged between 13-19 year olds by academic tracks. Methods A self-administered sociecometric questionnaires were distributed to 884 students in six European countries. On basis of Manski model (1993), the peer effect was decomposed into: i) contextual effects (i.e. the influence of exogenous peer characteristics such as age and gender); ii) endogenous effects (i.e. the influence of peer outcomes such as smoking) and iii) correlated effects (i.e. similar individuals behave similarly). A multi-regression model with a network fixed effects were used. Results The prevalence of daily smoking were slightly higher in vocational tracks than in non-vocational ones (Odds = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.22-1.82). However, considerable differences in contex-tual, endogenous and correlated effects of peer on smoking according to educational track were found. The social networks differed notably according to educational tracking. Vocational tracks were characterized by more centralized social student networks than non-vocational tracks, leading to a higher diffusion of smoking behaviors in the former than in the latter. Background The use of energy drinks and its possible negative effects on children's and adolescents' health and wellbeing have been discussed lately while little research has been available. Energy drinks are reasonably new products that contain large amounts of caffeine. Caffeine ingestion is known to cause a variety of health complaints such as headache and sleeping problems. A bottle of 0.5 liters of energy drinks contains approximately 165 mg of caffeine which is more than 1.5 times a cup of coffee. We studied energy drink consumption among Finnish adolescents and its association to caffeine induced health complaints. Methods Adolescent Health and Lifestyle Survey is a postal and internet survey where energy drink consumption and health complaints were studied among a representative sample of Finns aged 12-18 in 2007 (n = 5 840, response rate 61%) and 2011 (4 566, 47%). The data were merged in the analysis. Association between energy drinks and caffeine induced health complaints (headache, sleeping problems, irritation, tiredness/fatigue) was analyzed with logistic regression. Results Nearly half (44%) of the adolescents used energy drinks at least sometimes. Two per cent of the girls and 4% of the boys used them daily, 0.5% several times a day. Daily use of energy drinks was strongly associated with the four health complaints. In adjusted models, health complaints among those who used energy drinks several times a day were multifold compared with the non-users: headache (OR = 4.5, 95% CI = 2.0-10.1), sleeping problems (3.5, 1.7-7.1), irritation (2.4, 1.1-5.4) and tiredness/fatigue (3.4, 1.7-7.0). Conclusions Nearly half of the adolescents use energy drinks but the proportion of daily users is lower than expected. In adolescents, daily use of energy drinks significantly increases caffeine induced health complaints. Key message Daily use of energy drinks significantly increases caffeine induced health complaints among adolescents.