Definition

The indicator sugar-sweetened beverages is defined as the proportion of children and adolescents in the population who consume sugar-sweetened beverages daily.

Operationalisation

The consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is assessed using self-reported data collected using a food frequency questionnaire:

• KiGGS baseline study Baseline: “How often have you drunk sugar-sweetened beverages (e.g. cola, lemonade, iced tea, malt beer) in the last few weeks?”

  • Never
  • Once a month
  • 2-3 times a month
  • 1-2 times a week
  • 3-4 times a week
  • 5-6 times a week
  • Once a day
  • 2-3 times a day
  • 4-5 times a day
  • More than 5 times a day

• KiGGS baseline study Wave 2: “How often have you drunk sugar-sweetened beverages (e.g. cola, lemonade, iced tea, malt beer, energy drinks) in the last few weeks? Do not include diet beverages.”

  • Never
  • Once a month
  • 2-3 times a month
  • 1-2 times a week
  • 3-4 times a week
  • 5-6 times a week
  • Once a day
  • 2 times a day
  • 3 times a day
  • 4-5 times a day
  • More than 5 times a day

Reference population

Children and adolescents aged between 3 and 17 with permanent residency in Germany.

Data Source

Nationwide RKI interview and examination survey 2014-2017 (KiGGS baseline study Wave 2) based on a registry office sample. Data was collected using self-completed questionnaires (questioning the parents as well as the children and adolescents as of 11 years of age), a medical interview (questioning the parents) and an examination.

Number of cases

• KiGGS baseline study Baseline: n = 17,641

• KiGGS baseline study Wave 2 (cross-sectional survey): n = 15,023 (of which 3,567 underwent an examination)

Calculation

• Description: For the indicator, the figures for total, girls and boys are provided and stratified by age group, residential area and parental education as far as the number of cases available for the figure is ≥5 and the statistical uncertainty in the estimate of the indicator is not considered too large (a coefficient variation ≤ 33.5%).
• Stratification: The geographical classification of the residence of the participating person was carried out by region (north-east, north-west, middle-east, middle-west and south). Educational status of the parents was determined using the CASMIN index, which takes information on both school and vocational training into account and allows a categorisation into a low, medium and high education group.
• Weighting: In order to correct for deviations from the underlying reference population due to different participation rates or sampling probabilities, weighting factors were used when calculating the indicator. These adjust the surveys to the population structure of the reference population with regard to sex, age, federal state, German citizenship (yes/no) and parental education as at 31 December 2015.  

Data quality

The RKI surveys for children and adolescents provide representative results for the 0 to 17-year-old resident population in Germany. Various measures (including oversampling of children and adolescents without German citizenship), enabled migrants to be included in the KiGGS baseline study sample approximately in line with their proportion of the population. Nevertheless, further efforts are necessary in the future, especially for children and adolescents with little knowledge of German.