Our Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB) Survey

In February 2021, we conducted a sugar-sweetened beverage survey which aimed to obtain the public’s opinion on topics related to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Specifically, we measured the public’s opinion on the importance of the government addressing NCDs, how concerned individuals are about NCDs, and the public’s support for government policies to reduce SSB consumption, and we explored what SSBs the public consumes and how often they consume these.  

The survey enabled us to collect baseline data on the public’s views of the above-mentioned issues and determine their frequency of SSB consumption to help inform the direction of our media and advocacy campaign.

To collect the required data, we developed a short survey. The public could complete the survey anonymously online or via a hard copy with assistance from trained enumerators. A total of 423 people completed the survey.

Our survey suggests that St Kitts and Nevis has a high rate of NCDs and that the public is very concerned about NCDs and strongly believes that the government has a role to play in improving the country’s health. Therefore, action is needed on NCDs, and reducing the public’s SSB consumption is just one of many approaches that can be explored to address these health issues as our data shows high levels of SSB consumption in our sample.

To reduce the public’s consumption of SSBs requires behaviour change, and this can be achieved through the introduction of SSB policies by the government. These policies include evidence-based and globally endorsed policies such as an SSB tax, restricting the sale of SSBs in and around schools and banning the marketing of SSBs to children. Our data suggest that there is some public support for these policies and further public support could be obtained if carefully designed public education campaigns are implemented. Although the survey data shows that the public would support certain policies, the data also indicates that the method used to raise awareness of these policies and the spokespeople utilised in any communication strategy should be carefully considered to ensure the success of any such campaign.