Abstract

Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) have a direct impact on the general health of the country when looking at the rising obesity levels (CDC, 2017a). The USDA’s dietary guidelines suggest that the daily intake of added sugar should be limited to 6 teaspoons for women and 9 teaspoons for men (Hughes, 2017). However, the average American consumes 20 teaspoons of sugar daily (Hughes, 2017). These extra calories are converted into fat and stored in the body. Data collected throughout the years indicates a rise in the number of Americans living with a weight above healthy recommendations, which is termed, obese. Obesity is a precursor to other life-threatening diseases, and SSBs are a contributor that can be avoided (CDC, 2017b). In this study, we concluded that there was a significant relationship between the knowledge and the attitude of participants. If the knowledge was high on the subject matter, the attitude reflected the same. However, there was no significant correlation between knowledge and attitude and the number of SSBs that were consumed. In addition, there was no a significant correlation between the demographics of race, income, education, or sex and the number of SSBs consumed. The only significant correlation to the number of SSBs consumed was that of age. The younger a person was, the more SSBs were consumed, and the older an individual the less SSBs were consumed. Finally, we concluded that there is split support for a tax on SSBs and that if a tax were imposed, about one third would not change their behaviors.

Advisor

Margaret Murray-Davis

Committee Member

Joseph Visker

Committee Member

Autumn Hamilton

Date of Degree

2019

Language

english

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Health Science

College

Allied Health and Nursing

Download

Share

COinS
 

Rights Statement

In Copyright