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. 2015 Mar;56(3):352-9.
doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.12.001.

Usual intake of added sugars and lipid profiles among the U.S. adolescents: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2010

Zefeng Zhang  1 , Cathleen Gillespie  2 , Jean A Welsh  3 , Frank B Hu  4 , Quanhe Yang  2
Affiliations

Usual intake of added sugars and lipid profiles among the U.S. adolescents: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2010

Zefeng Zhang et al. J Adolesc Health. 2015 Mar.

Abstract

Purpose: Although studies suggest that higher consumption of added sugars is associated with cardiovascular risk factors in adolescents, none have adjusted for measurement errors or examined its association with the risk of dyslipidemia.

Methods: We analyzed data of 4,047 adolescents aged 12-19 years from the 2005-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey. We estimated the usual percentage of calories (%kcal) from added sugars using up to two 24-hour dietary recalls and the National Cancer Institute method to account for measurement error.

Results: The average usual %kcal from added sugars was 16.0%. Most adolescents (88.0%) had usual intake of ≥10% of total energy, and 5.5% had usual intake of ≥25% of total energy. After adjustment for potential confounders, usual %kcal from added sugars was inversely associated with high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and positively associated with triglycerides (TGs), TG-to-HDL ratio, and total cholesterol (TC) to HDL ratio. Comparing the lowest and highest quintiles of intake, HDLs were 49.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 47.4-51.6) and 46.4 mg/dL (95% CI, 45.2-47.6; p = .009), TGs were 85.6 (95% CI, 75.5-95.6) and 101.2 mg/dL (95% CI, 88.7-113.8; p = .037), TG to HDL ratios were 2.28 (95% CI, 1.84-2.70) and 2.73 (95% CI, 2.11-3.32; p = .017), and TC to HDL ratios were 3.41 (95% CI, 3.03-3.79) and 3.70 (95% CI, 3.24-4.15; p = .028), respectively. Comparing the highest and lowest quintiles of intake, adjusted odds ratio of dyslipidemia was 1.41 (95% CI, 1.01-1.95). The patterns were consistent across sex, race/ethnicity, and body mass index subgroups. No association was found for TC, low-density lipoprotein, and non-HDL cholesterol.

Conclusions: Most U.S. adolescents consumed more added sugars than recommended for heart health. Usual intake of added sugars was significantly associated with several measures of lipid profiles.

Keywords: Added sugars; Dyslipidemia; Lipid profiles; Usual percentage of calories.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Adjusted high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (A), triglycerides (TG) (B), TG-to-HDL cholesterol ratio (C), and TC-to-HDL cholesterol ratio (D) (95% confidence interval) by midvalue of quintile of usual percentage of calories from added sugars among adolescents aged 12–19 years who were not on a restricted diet, NHANES 2005–2010.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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