Taxing sugar-sweetened beverages decreases lower-income households purchasing of them by nearly 50%, which could present a strategy to further reduce health disparities, new research has found.
The study , published late last month by the University of Washington , sought to identify the impact of the eight U.S. cities that have started taxing sweetened drinks like energy drinks, sports drinks and carbonated sodas. Cities included in the study were Seattle, San Francisco, Oakland and Philadelphia, though other northern California areas, Boulder and Washington, D.C. also tax sweetened beverages.
After looking into the purchasing behaviors of 400 households for a year before and after their city’s tax was implemented, the researchers found that lower-income households — which consume sweetened beverages at a higher-than-average rate, per previous studies — bought nearly 47% fewer after the tax, while higher-income households decreased their purchases of the products by 18%…