Any thoughts?
guardian.co.uk/society/2012...
Copy and paste to have a look.
Australian study on fizzy drinks cont... - Asthma Community ...
Australian study on fizzy drinks contributing to asthma/copd
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andyk1
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Not convinced. Is it not possible that individuals who consume that extent of fizzy drink also are more likely to have another associated risk factor / lifestyle choice that could be connected with poor health generally, for instance a generally poor diet, smoking, poor housing, living in poverty, lack of exercise, being over-weight...
I note that there's no hypothesis about what it is about fizzy drinks that are supposed to increase the risk of asthma / COPD.
Andy and Ratty, if it helps have found the abstract of the original paper.
Respirology (2012) 17, 363-369
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...
""Association between soft drink consumption and asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease among adults in Australia (pages 363–369)
ABSTRACT
Background and objective: The aim of this study was to examine the association between soft drink consumption and self-reported doctor-diagnosed asthma and COPD among adults living in South Australia.
Methods: Data were collected using a risk factor surveillance system. Each month a representative random sample of South Australians were selected from the electronic White Pages and interviews were conducted using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI).
Results: Among 16 907 participants aged 16 years and older, 11.4% reported daily soft drink consumption of more than half a litre. High levels of soft drink consumption were positively associated with asthma and COPD. Overall, 13.3% of participants with asthma and 15.6% of those with COPD reported consuming more than half a litre of soft drink per day. By multivariate analysis, after adjusting for socio-demographic and lifestyle factors, the odds ratio (OR) for asthma was 1.26 (95% confidence interval (CI): 1.01–1.58) and the OR for COPD was 1.79 (95% CI: 1.32–2.43), comparing those who consumed more than half a litre of soft drink per day with those who did not consume soft drinks.
Conclusions: There was a positive association between consumption of soft drinks and asthma/COPD among adults living in South Australia.
Reading this I was wondering how many patients where having asthma attacks/allergic reactions to the sulphites and citric acid found in some of the common fizzy drinks...
Or could reflux be an issue as well?
I would be slightly suspicious of what people report over the phone. I used to work in a surgery where >90% of the patients claimed to be teetotal when filling in a health questionnaire. So they could only try and take into account the other lifestyle factors people were actually honest about.
There is a definite danger here of saying 'correlation implies causation'. Also, what exactly is meant by 'soft drinks'? I'm assuming they don't just mean 'non-alcoholic drinks' but even within the fizzy sorts there must be variation eg I would have thought drinking a lot of Appletise is not the same as drinking vast amounts of Pepsi or supermarket fizzy lemonade.
Just remembered that at my last resp appt the registrar asked me 'do you drink during the week?' and I said no (I really don't, and would say if I did). But made me laugh, as the way she phrased it made it sound rather like I could be going out and getting absolutely hammered every weekend and it wouldn't count!
nothing here to say that 'soft drinks' caused the asthma/COPD, just that those with asthma/COPD drank more 'soft drinks' maybe their's as reason they like the I assume sugary drink, as opposed squash etc.
