Consumption of sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened soft drinks and risk of obesity-related cancers

Objective: To test the hypothesis that more frequent consumption of sugar-sweetened soft drinks would be associated with increased risk of obesity-related cancers. Associations for artificially sweetened soft drinks were assessed for comparison. Design: Prospective cohort study with cancers identified by linkage to cancer registries. At baseline, participants completed a 121-item FFQ including separate questions about the number of times in the past year they had consumed wsugar-sweetened or artificially sweetened soft drinks. Anthropometric measurements, including waist circumference, were taken and questions about smoking, leisure-time physical activity and intake of alcoholic beverages were completed. Setting: The Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study (MCCS) is a prospective cohort study which recruited 41 514 men and women aged 40-69 years between 1990 and 1994. A second wave of data collection occurred in 2003-2007. Subjects: Data for 35 593 participants who developed 3283 incident obesity-related cancers were included in the main analysis. Results: Increasing frequency of consumption of both sugar-sweetened and artificially sweetened soft drinks was associated with greater waist circumference at baseline. For sugar-sweetened soft drinks, the hazard ratio (HR) for obesity-related cancers increased as frequency of consumption increased (HR for consumption >1/d v. < 1/month = 1.18; 95% CI 0.97, 1.45; P-trend=0.007). For artificially sweetened soft drinks, the HR for obesity-related cancers was not associated with consumption (HR for consumption >1/ d v. <1/month=1.00; 95% CI 0.79, 1. 27; P-trend = 0.61). Conclusions: Our results add to the justification to minimise intake of sugarsweetened soft drinks.