Saeed A Hm Ed Shaikh, Kamlesh Ahuja, Barkat Ali Shaikh, Benazir Abbasi, Romesa Sikandar, Arshad Maqbool.
Frequency of Energy Drinks Consumption and its Determinants among undergraduate Students.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;12(1):385-9.

Background: Energy drink consumption has continued to gain in popularity since 1997 after the entry of Red bull in market, which is known as current leader in energy drink market. Young adult, teenagers and students of college are the main target of energy drinks manufacturing companies. Aims : To identify the frequency of energy drinks and to compare the frequency of consumption among the students of various colleges and to identify the determinants of energy drinks consumption in undergraduate students . Methods : Data collected by cross-sectional survey conducted in 2016 in undergraduate students. A pre-tested structured questionnaire was used to interview the eligible participants. Basic demographic information and data regarding consumption, type and reasons, and side effects of energy drinks etc. of using energy drinks were recorded. Results: Prevalence of consumption of energy drinks amongst 426 surveyed undergraduate students was 90.61%. Boys were consuming more energy drinks compared to girls (64.5% VS 35.5%). Majority of the participants, (52.8%) using energy drinks for more than one year and 96% of study participants did not know about the active ingredients. Sting was the most commonly used brand (88.6%) followed by the Red bull (10.9%). The major reasons for using energy drinks including for test (62%), increase working capacity (25.4%), increase waking hours ( 10.4% ), Increase memory (10.4%). Most commonly experienced side effect of using energy drink was diarrhea (54.4%), increased heart rate (12.4%), fatigue (19%) increased blood pressure (9.3%) . Conclusion: Study results indicated that energy drink consumption is popular practice among undergraduate students for variety of reasons. Further, most of the students are not aware about the contents and the side effects which are also common after the consuming energy drinks.

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