Public Health

Driving change for the next generation

The Public Health Diet Nutrition project brings together experts, scientists and academics from across every sector of public health.

As a key partner, Teesside University was involved in a project through Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, looking at the rising use of energy drinks amongst young people.

Around one in three young people in the UK regularly consume energy drinks which typically contain extremely high levels of caffeine and sugar. Teesside University investigated the potential consequences of this trend making some remarkable findings during the collaborative project.

The researchers called on the government to ban the sale of energy drinks to young people, and a national campaign was launched fronted by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, leading to a range of UK shops and retailers agreeing to the proposals to restrict sales to children.

Challenge

Under-18s in the UK consume more energy drinks than their peers in any other European country. Consumption in schools in County Durham was identified as a key concern by parents, teachers and professionals, and an earlier review of the existing evidence suggested the drinks could potentially be associated with adverse outcomes, risky behaviours and common health complaints such as headaches or stomach aches.

Working collaboratively through the public health research centre Fuse, the research intended to explore this evidence further, investigating the factors that may influence young people’s behaviour. It also aimed to develop interventions to educate students, teachers, and parents.

Solution

The research involved a detailed investigation that spanned several months. Researchers spoke to children and young people aged between 10 and 14 years old in primary and secondary schools across County Durham and made visits to a variety of local shops in the area. Researchers discovered that energy drinks were readily available for purchase by children, and that young people were aware of the different brands, key ingredients and some of the risks associated with the products.

However, the interviewees were much less certain about the amount of sugar and caffeine in each drink. The team also discovered that energy drinks were on sale for as little as 25p and some young people pooled their money to purchase and share drinks.

Children were targeted online through pop-up ads, commercials on TV, sports sponsorship and computer games for over-18s. Some young people said they chose energy drinks to ‘fit in’ or ‘look tough’ but others had made the decision as a friendship group to stop drinking them.

Energy drinks were also linked to extreme sports, gaming, sexuality and gender, as well as the use of sexualised imagery.

The paper concluded that the use of energy drinks by under-18s is associated with a range of negative effects and unhealthy behaviours. These include physical health complaints like headaches, palpitations and insomnia, and higher rates of alcohol, smoking and drug use.

Impact

Teesside University is committed to driving positive and inclusive change in community health and wellbeing, working in partnership across the university and wider research and policy/practice landscape through Fuse. This public health nutrition project was a perfect embodiment of that ongoing commitment.

As a result of the research, academics from Fuse called on the government to restrict the sale of energy drinks to under-16s after finding that they were being sold for cheaper than bottled water.

After the press release gained significant attention in both national and international press, a campaign was launched fronted by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver and involving the lead academic from Teesside University, calling for more decisive government action.

A UK government inquiry was launched acknowledging the study, the research team gave evidence to the Science and Technology committee on the effects of energy drinks on young people’s mental and physical health, and banning the sale of energy drinks to children was included in the government’s green paper, Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s.

Despite this, to date no further action has been taken by the UK government to ban the sale of energy drinks to children and young people.