3-in-4 U.S. kids and teens drink caffeine, mostly soda

HYATTSVILLE, Md., Feb. 12 (UPI) -- On any given day, almost 75 percent of U.S. children and teens drink caffeine, but lately they are drinking more coffee and less soda, officials say.

Amy M. Branum, Lauren M. Rossen and Dr. Kenneth C. Schoendorf of the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, analyzed caffeine data among 22,000 U.S. children and adolescents ages 2 to 22 using 24-hour dietary recall data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2010.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found approximately 73 percent of children consumed caffeine from 1999 to 2010, but there were no significant trends in mean caffeine consumption.

Soda accounted for most of the caffeine consumption, but it declined from 62 percent at the beginning of the study to 38 percent at the end of the study.

However, from 1999 to 2000, coffee accounted for around 10 percent of caffeine intake, but it increased to almost 24 percent in 2009 to 2010. Energy drinks did not appear in 1999-2000, but the high caffeine drink made up almost 6 percent of caffeine intake in 2009 to 2010.