Research by @ninarogers.bsky.social & Prof. David Conway incicates the SDIL may have reduced tooth removal in under 18's due to tooth decay by 12%, saving >5,500 hospital admissions for tooth decay with the largest reductions in children aged 0-9 years.

www.mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk/blog/2023/11...

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An analysis of UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey data led by @ninarogers.bsky.social and @jeanmadams.bsky.social found daily free sugar intake fell by 5g in children and 11g in adults following the announcement of the SDIL in 2016.

www.mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk/blog/2024/07...

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· 🔽sugar consumption from soft drinks in adults and children jech.bmj.com/content/jech...

· 🔽rates of childhood hospital admissions for asthma

· 🔽hospital tooth extractions among infants and primary school children pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38264366

Using multiple datasets, I’m proud to have led work triangulating evidence on health/dietary impacts of UK SDIL

Our findings indicate:
· 🔽 obesity prevalence among Year 6 girls, with particularly strong effects for children living in more deprived areas
journals.plos.org/plosmedicine...

Our research shows substantial sugar purchased from the category "milk & milk-based drinks" (although we didn't look at these separately). Plain milk is nutritious and not part of the consultation. Other exempt groups (eg: powders) could be considered bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjo...

A lower tax threshold (4g/100 ml) should reduce sugar intake given manufacturers reformulated drinks to just below the 5g /100ml. A step-wise graded system to incentivise lower sugar levels should be considered plus a higher tax on drinks with very high sugar (>10g sugar/100ml)

In conclusion, our comprehensive analysis of the UK SDIL, using multiple data sources to understand the health impacts of the sugar tax, suggests large population-wide benefits across the life-course starting with infants and children.

Accumulating evidence suggests links between soft drinks & increased risk of asthma symptoms in children.We found a 21% reduction in incidence rates of NHS hospital admissions for asthma in children, aged 5-18y. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

~ 2 years post-SDIL we find a 12% relative reduction in NHS hospital admissions for tooth extraction in children aged 0-18 years. ⬇️⬇️ greatest in infants/young children & regardless of deprivation. Hear me talking to
@BBCRadio4 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

We examined obesity levels in primary school children & found SDIL was related to ~5200 fewer cases/year of obesity in 10-11 year old girls. ⬇️were greatest in girls from 40% most deprived areas (relative reduction: 9-11%).No change in boys/reception-ages. journals.plos.org/plosmedicine...

~1 year post-SDIL there was a daily ⬇️in sugar consumption from soft drinks of 3g in children and 5.5g in adults; across the whole diet reductions in sugar intake were 4.8g & 10.9g/day, respectively. Full read jech.bmj.com/content/78/9...

19 months post-SDIL there were ⬇️ of 7.5g sugar from drinks/house/week BUT ⬇️ much greater (70g/wk) in low income houses & houses with children in them (56 g/wk). Sugar from confectionary was unchanged suggesting no substitution to other sugary items. nutrition.bmj.com/content/earl...

I led research on the health/dietary impacts of the UK SDIL and used different data to examine the impact of SDIL on: 1)purchasing of sugar from drinks, 2)sugar consumption in adults/children 3)obesity (primary school) 4) dental extractions 5) asthma. Here is what we found: