MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Helen P. Hazuda, Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
Division of Nephrology
Department of Medicine
University of Texas Health Science Center
at San Antonio San Antonio, TX
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Hazuda: The long-term effects of diet soda consumption on health outcomes is unclear, and studies in both humans and animals have raised concerns about their potentially harmful health effects including weight gain and increased cardiometabolic risk. Most human studies have focused on middle-aged or younger adults, rather than focusing specifically on people 65 years and older, a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population that has a disproportionately high burden of cardiometabolic disease and associated healthcare costs. Therefore, our study examined prospectively the association between diet soda intake and long-term change in waist circumference in a biethnic cohort of older (65+ years) Mexican American and European American participants in the San Antonio Longitudinal Study of Aging (SALSA).
SALSA included a baseline examination (1992 – 1996) and three follow-up examinations (2000-2001, 2001-2003, and 2003-2004). The total follow-up period averaged 9.4 years. Diet soda intake, waist circumference (WC), height and weight were measured at each examination along with sociodemographic factors, leisure physical activity, diabetes mellitus, smoking, and length of follow-up.
The main finding is that over the total 9.4-year SALSA follow-up period and after adjustment for multiple potential confounders, daily diet soda users (1+ diet sodas/day) experienced an increase in waist circumference of 3.2 inches, while occasional diet soda users (>.05 < 1 diet soda/day) experienced a
waist circumference increase of 1.8 inches, and nonusers of diet soda experienced a WC increase of 0.8 inches. Thus, there was a striking dose-response relationship between chronic diet soda intake and long-term increases in waist circumference.