Potential impact of the adult‐targeted LiveLighter “Sugary Drinks” campaign on adolescent consumption: Findings from a national cross‐sectional school survey

Abstract Issue addressed To examine the potential impact on trends in reported adolescent sugar‐sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption following the adult‐targeted Western Australian (WA) LiveLighter “Sugary Drinks” campaign, which is a television‐led healthy lifestyle promotion and education mass media campaign that aired in multiple bursts between July 2013 and December 2018. Methods Data were from a repeated cross‐sectional survey of Australian secondary school students aged 12‐17 years conducted nation‐wide in 2009‐2010 (n = 13 790 from 238 schools), 2012‐2013 (n = 10 309 from 196 schools) and 2018 (n = 9102 from 104 schools). Results Significant declines in high SSB consumption (≥4 cups/week) were observed between 2009‐2010 and 2012‐2013 among students in both WA (27.1% vs 20.3%; odds ratio [OR] = 0.65, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.50‐0.84, P = .001) and all other states and territories combined (30.6% vs 21.4%; OR = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.53‐0.68, P < .001). Compared to 2012‐2013, the proportion of students in WA who reported high SSB consumption was significantly lower in 2018 (20.3% vs 9.6%; OR = 0.37, 95% CI = 0.21‐0.65, P = .001), whereas this significant decrease was not observed in all other states and territories combined (21.4% vs 17.8%; OR = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.67‐0.97, P = .024). Interaction testing indicated that the recent decline observed in WA was more pronounced among female than male students. Conclusions Mass media campaigns targeted towards the Australian adult population may have favourable effects among adolescents with the steeper decline in high SSB consumption observed in WA between 2012‐2013 and 2018 coinciding with the repeated airing of the LiveLighter “Sugary Drinks” campaign in this state. So what? Government investment in mass media campaigns may hasten declines in adolescents' SSB consumption.