Global Intake of Major Beverages in Adults by Country Wealth and Sociodemographic Characteristics: Analysis of the Global Dietary Database 2015

Assessing the impact of beverage intake on health has been limited by lack of reliable and standardized individual-level data on a global scale. We provide updated estimates of global intakes of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), fruit juices, and milk, as well as novel estimates of coffee and tea, jointly by country, age, sex, education, and urban-rural residence for adults in 2015. Beverge intake data in the Global Dietary Database were derived from 1144 national and subnational surveys from 1980 through 2015, covering 97.5% of the world’s population. Mean intakes and 95% uncertainty intervals were estimated using a Bayesian hierarchical prediction model, and stratified by country (n = 185), urban-rural residence, sex, age group (all ages, 20 age groups), and education level (low, middle, high). The model combined primary data on individual-level intakes with time-varying country-level and survey-level covariates. Grouped by World Bank wealth categories, intake of SSBs was highest in low-income countries (LIC) and high-income countries (HIC) (0.7 servings (8-oz)/d each), and lowest in upper-middle income countries UMIC (0.4 s/d). Intakes were generally higher in men, urban residence, and with higher education, except in HIC were intakes did not differ by education. Fruit juice was highest in HIC (0.2 s/d) and lowest in lower-middle income countries (LMIC) (