Energy drinks increase hyperactivity, inattention in children: study

Children between the ages of 10 and 13 who consume sugar-laden energy drinks are dramatically more at risk for hyperactivity and inattentiveness, according to researchers from Yale University in the US.

The authors, whose study was published in the journal Academic Pediatrics, also recommend that younger children steer clear of energy drinks, although their study involved 1,649 children in the US whose average age was 12.4.

"As the total number of sugar-sweetened beverages increased, so too did risk for hyperactivity and inattention symptoms among our middle-school students," says lead author Professor Jeanette Ickovics, of Yale.

"Importantly, it appears that energy drinks are driving this association." Students revealed their daily intake of sugar-sweetened beverages -- including but not limited to energy drinks -- and were then asked to undergo an assessment for hyperactivity and inattentiveness by means of a five-item questionnaire.

Boys, they say -- particularly black and Hispanic boys, who accounted for 38 and 47 per cent of the sample, respectively -- are the most likely to guzzle energy drinks.

Students who reported consuming energy drinks were 66 per cent more likely to succumb to inattentiveness and hyperactivity -- both of which have weighty implications for their academic performance.

The risk for hyperactivity and inattentiveness increased by 14 per cent for each additional sweetened beverage they consumed, after data was adjusted for age, gender, ethnicity and overall diet.

Certain popular beverages contain up to 40 grams of sugar, say the researchers, which surpasses the maximum daily sugar intake recommendation of between 21 and 33 grams per day.

The students they worked with consumed an average of two sugar-sweetened drinks per day, including energy drinks, and that number rose to seven in the most extreme cases.

Ickovics remarks that about one third of schoolchildren in the US are either overweight or obese and sugar-laden beverages are well known to be the main source of extraneous calories in their diets.

More research is needed, she says, on sweetened beverages and hyperactivity, particularly in the minority demographic.

Some dispute what they see as too much marketing of energy drinks to youth, including professional snowboarders Austin Smith and Brian Fox, who in 2011 started a campaign to encourage their young admirers to drink water.

Their website speaks to children in the same age demographic as those involved in the Yale study, and while their "Drink Water" sweatshirts and baseball caps are a common sight at ski resorts, Ickovics' study indicates a need for the message to spread beyond the winter sports milieu.