The Consumption of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in Jamaica and Its Association With Household Expenditure Allocation

Background: . Overweight and obesity are important drivers for the increasing healthcare and other social costs. Apart from present social costs, consumption of SSB may have an effect on future outcomes, from family future wellbeing to national economic growth. If expenditures on SSB decrease expenditures on other goods and services, such as education and healthcare, this “crowding-out” may have a lasting effect. The objective of this article is to estimate the statistical association between the decision of spending in SSB and budget allocation in Jamaica Methods: . Using the Jamaican Household Expenditure Survey 2004-2005 a generalized ordered probit model was estimated to examine the association between socioeconomic variables and the decision to purchase SSB. Seemingly Unrelated Regression Equations (SURE) of all the expenditure groups (except the SSB group) were used to estimate the association between the decision of buying SSB and budget allocation on other goods and services. Results: . Purchases of SSB are negatively affected by the size of the household and the area of residence (rural households purchase more SSB than urban ones), while having a larger proportion of children (15 or younger) and having a larger total budget is associated to more expenditures on SSB. Households with positive expenditure on SSB allocate significantly less budget to “Health” and “Education”, when compared to those who did not buy SSB. Conclusions: . SSB purchases may crowd-out expenditures in essential goods and services, which implies that decreasing the amount spent on SSB may have important present and future consequences on poorer households’ welfare.