Geospatial clustering in sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among Boston youth

Abstract

The objective was to detect geospatial clustering of sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) intake in Boston adolescents (age = 16.3 ± 1.3 years [range: 13–19]; female = 56.1%; White = 10.4%, Black = 42.6%, Hispanics = 32.4%, and others = 14.6%) using spatial scan statistics. We used data on self-reported SSB intake from the 2008 Boston Youth Survey Geospatial Dataset (n = 1292). Two binary variables were created: consumption of SSB (never versus any) on (1) soda and (2) other sugary drinks (e.g., lemonade). A Bernoulli spatial scan statistic was used to identify geospatial clusters of soda and other sugary drinks in unadjusted models and models adjusted for age, gender, and race/ethnicity. There was no statistically significant clustering of soda consumption in the unadjusted model. In contrast, a cluster of non-soda SSB consumption emerged in the middle of Boston (relative risk = 1.20, p = .005), indicating that adolescents within the cluster had a 20% higher probability of reporting non-soda SSB intake than outside the cluster. The cluster was no longer significant in the adjusted model, suggesting spatial variation in non-soda SSB drink intake correlates with the geographic distribution of students by race/ethnicity, age, and gender.

Keywords:

• Geospatial clustering
• spatial scan statistic
• sugary drink intake
• adolescents

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the participants for their contributions to the project.

Disclosure statement

Authors report no conflicts of interest.

Research involving human participants

The original study protocols were approved by the Institutional Review Board at the Harvard School of Public Health and all procedures were in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000.

Informed consent

Passive consent was obtained from parents (i.e. they had the opportunity to opt out from the study) and students read the informed assent prior to the survey administration.

Additional information

Funding

The 2008 Boston Youth Survey was funded by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (grant No. U49CE00740) to the Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center at Harvard School of Public Health. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Active Living Research Program (grant No. 67129) supported the development of the Boston Youth Survey Geospatial Dataset. This study was also funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the National Institutes of Health (grant No. R01DK097347).