Prospective association of family members’ sugar-sweetened beverages intake with children’s sugar-sweetened beverages consumption in China

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec> <jats:title>Purpose</jats:title> <jats:p>We aimed to investigate whether parental and siblings’ sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake had prospective impact on children’s SSB consumption, and the potential sex difference in these associations.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Methods</jats:title> <jats:p>This study included a total of 904 children and their parents enrolled from 2004 to 2011 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) cohort study. SSB consumption information was estimated using a short dietary questionnaire and total energy intake was assessed with three-day 24-h dietary assessments at recruitment and follow-up surveys. Multivariate logistic or linear regression analyses were used to assess the association for SSB consumption between parents, siblings and children after adjusting for age, body mass index (BMI) <jats:italic>z</jats:italic>-score, household income and parental educational level.</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>In this study, a majority (87.6%) of children consumed SSB. Among them, the median consumption of SSB was 70.3 ml/day per capita and 205.4 ml/day per consumer. Parental SSB consumption was relevant to children’s SSB consumption, and this association was more pronounced in boys than in girls. Meanwhile, fathers seemed to have a stronger impact on whether children consume SSB than mothers which was reflected by lower <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> and higher OR. Additionally, children’s SSB intake was prospectively associated with their older siblings’ SSB consumption (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic><jats:sub>for trend</jats:sub> &lt; 0.03).</jats:p> </jats:sec><jats:sec> <jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title> <jats:p>Parental and older siblings’ SSB consumption was relevant to children’s SSB intake. Particularly, boys were more susceptible to parental impact than girls, and fathers seemed to have a greater influence on children than mothers.</jats:p> </jats:sec>