Beverage Prices, Volume Sold After Sweetened Beverage Tax Repeal in Chicago's County: Study

New study examined whether there was a lasting change in beverage prices and volume sold after the 2017 repeal of the Cook County, Illinois, Sweetened Beverage Tax.

New study examined whether a lasting change in sweetened beverage prices or the volume sold was linked to the implementation and repeal of a sweetened beverage tax in Cook County, Illinois, where Chicago is. The findings of the study are published in the journal JAMA Network Open.//

Importance: Health taxes are policy tools used to reduce harmful consumption of products and raise tax revenue, and they may also be associated with signaling (i.e., informational and educational) factors that enhance their impact.

Strategies to Reduce Sugar-sweetened Beverage Consumption in Young Children
Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages have been linked to weight gain (obesity) and other negative health effects, particularly in young children. It is important to identify successful strategies to reduce consumption of these sugary drinks.

Objectives: To examine changes in prices and volume sold of sweetened beverages following the implementation and repeal of the Cook County, Illinois, Sweetened Beverage Tax (SBT) compared with the comparison site of St Louis County and city, Missouri, which did not impose a tax.

Design, Setting, and Participants: This study used interrupted time-series analyses to assess changes in price and volume sold of taxed (based on beverage type and sweetener status) and untaxed beverages in Cook County compared with St Louis following the implementation of the SBT on August 2, 2017, and its repeal effective December 1, 2017. Statistical analysis was performed from January to June 2020.

Exposures: Implementation and repeal of the Cook County SBT.

Sugar-sweetened Beverage can Put You at a Higher Kidney Disease Risk
Higher consumption of soda, sweetened fruit drinks, and water are associated with an increased risk of developing kidney disease. Few U.S. cities have successfully reduced sugar sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption via taxation.

Main Outcomes and Measures: Changes in taxed and untaxed beverage prices and volume sold. Nielsen food store scanner data were obtained for weekly volume and dollar amount sold of nonalcoholic beverage universal product codes (UPCs) for each site in supermarkets and mass merchandise, grocery, drug, convenience, and dollar stores.

Results: The analytic samples included 16 510 UPCs for volume and 2141 UPCs (balanced sample) for prices for 122 pretax weeks, 16 tax weeks, and 35 postrepeal weeks.

Daily Dose of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Pose Risk of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
High prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was found among people who reported drinking more than one sugar-sweetened beverage per day.

Compared with St Louis, posttax implementation in Cook County resulted in a level increase in taxed beverage prices of 1.13 cents per fluid ounce (95% CI, 1.01 to 1.25 cents per fluid ounce), representing a slight over shifting, followed by a posttax repeal level decrease of −1.19 cents per fluid ounce (95% CI, −1.33 to −1.04 cents per fluid ounce), with no resulting change pretax to posttax repeal.

Volume sold of taxed beverages in Cook County compared with St Louis exhibited a posttax implementation level decrease of 25.7% (β = −0.297; 95% CI, −0.415 to −0.179) and a posttax repeal level increase of 30.5% (β = 0.266, 95% CI, 0.124 to 0.408), with no net change in volume sold from pretax to 8 months after repeal.

Excessive Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Consumption Among Children
An alarming increase in the number of children affected by obesity has become a cause of concern. Read on to find out how drinking sweetened beverages contribute to this early obesity.

Conclusions and Relevance: This study using interrupted time series analysis found no net change in volume sold of taxed beverages following the implementation and repeal of the Cook County SBT, suggesting the tax had no signaling association. Repeals of such taxes may fully reverse their associations with reduced demand and harms associated with sweetened beverage intake.

Source-Eurekalert