Short Communication The potential link between sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and post-exercise airway narrowing across puberty: a longitudinal cohort study

Objective: The prevalence of asthma is rising, presenting serious public health challenges. Recent data suggest that sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption plays a role in asthma aetiology. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether SSB consumption is linked to post-exercise airway narrowing (predictor of asthma development) across puberty. Design: Participants completed pulmonary function tests, physical activity and dietary habit questionnaires, and an exercise test to exhaustion. Setting: Community in Manhattan, Kansas, USA. Subjects: We recruited ten boys and ten girls from an original cohort of forty participants tested in our laboratory approximately 5 years prior. Participants were aged 9·7 (SD 0·9) years at baseline and 14·7 (SD 0·9) years at follow-up. Results: Pre-puberty, boys consumed 6·8 (SD 4·8) servings/week and girls consumed 6·9 (SD 3·7) servings/week, while post-puberty boys consumed 11·5 (SD 5·3) servings/week and girls consumed 7·7 (SD 4·3) servings/week. Using Pearson correlation, SSB consumption was not significantly related to postexercise airway narrowing at pre-puberty (r= − 0·35, P= 0·130). In linear regression analyses, SSB consumption was significantly related to post-exercise airway narrowing post-puberty before (standardized β= − 0·60, P= 0·005) but not after (standardized β= − 0·33, P= 0·211) adjustment for confounders. Change in SSB consumption from preto post-puberty was significantly associated with post-exercise airway narrowing post-puberty (r= − 0·61, P= 0·010) and change in post-exercise airway narrowing from preto post-puberty (r= − 0·45, P= 0·048) when assessed via Pearson correlations. Conclusions: These findings suggest a possible link between SSB consumption and asthma development during maturation. Reduced SSB intake may be a possible public health avenue for blunting rising asthma prevalence.