Korean Journal of Health Promotion

Kim, Jeon, Shim, and Seo: Effects of Awareness and Knowledge of Energy Drinks on Consumption Patterns among College Students

Original Article: Published online: December 19, 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15384/kjhp.2015.15.1.31; Effects of Awareness and Knowledge of Energy Drinks on Consumption Patterns among College Students; Yoo Jin Kim, Eun Min Jeon, Sung Bo Shim, Hwa Jeong Seo; Medical Informatics and health Technology (MIT), Department of Health Care Services, College of Social Science, Gachon University, Seongnam, Korea; Corresponding author：Hwa Jeong Seo, PhD Medical Informatics and health Technology (MIT), Department of Health Care Services, College of Social Science, Gachon University, 1342 Seongnam-daero, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam 461-701, Korea
Tel: +82-31-750-8741, Fax: +82-31-750-5372 E-mail: hjseo@gachon.ac.kr; Received August 21, 2014 Accepted February 09, 2015; Copyright © 2015 The Korean Society of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

Background: We examined the consumption patterns and the knowledge and awareness of energy drinks to draw up a guideline for energy drink consumption and to give accurate information to college student.

Methods: Data from 324 subjects (186 males and 138 females) were collected using self-administered questionnaires. The study participants were recruited from the Gyeonggi-do, Seongnam area between March and June 2013.

Results: The results showed that there was a significant gender-based difference in awareness of energy drinks- 56.5% (78/139) of the males and 78.9% (71/90) of the females had negative awareness (P<.001). As for recognizability of taurine by awareness of energy drinks, there were intergroup differences: the mean was 3.89 for the group with positive awareness and 3.31 for the negative awareness group (P=.001). The odds ratio for awareness of energy drinks was 2.75 (95% CI:1.05-7.18) and those with positive awareness consumed more than those with negative awareness (P=.039).

Conclusions: This investigation on the factors that affect energy drinks consumption behaviors is of significance in that it helps make known the high caffeine content of energy drinks, and accurate knowledge of the side effects and appropriate consumption. Korean J Health Promot 2015;15(1):31-38

Key words: Energy drinks; Caffeine; Economics; Awareness; Students

Table 1.

Awareness and knowledge of energy drinks by study participants

Variables		Awareness		χ²	P	Knowledge			χ²	P
Variables		Positive	Negative	χ²	P	High	Middle	Low	χ²	P
Gender	Male	61 (43.9)	78 (56.1)	12.465	<0.001	17 (9.1)	98 (52.7)	71 (38.2)	7.031	0.030
	Female	19 (21.1)	71 (78.9)			4 (2.9)	67 (48.6)	67 (48.6)
Grade	1, 2 3, 4	37 (34.9) 43 (35.0)	69 (65.1) 80 (65.0)	0.000	0.993	10 (6.3) 11 (6.7)	82 (51.3) 83 (50.6)	68 (42.5) 70 (42.7)	0.033	0.983
Consumption experience	Ever Never	74 (37.8) 6 (18.2)	122 (62.2) 27 (81.8)	4.761	0.029	18 (6.6) 3 (6.0)	140 (51.1) 25 (50.0)	116 (42.3) 22 (44.0)	0.074	0.969

Awareness: The level of positive or negative awareness of energy drinks.

Knowledge: The level of basic knowledge of energy drinks, including the recommended daily consumption amount and the caffeine content.

Table 2.

Recognizability of caffeine and taurine in energy drinks

Variable		Caffeine					Taurine
Variable		N	M	SD	t^a	P	N	M	SD	t^a	P
Gender	Male	180	4.03	1.098	1.347	0.179	164	3.51	1.185	2.154	0.032
	Female	135	3.87	1.071			105	3.21	1.044
Grade	1, 2	155	3.99	1.162	0.403	0.686	130	3.42	1.213	0.455	0.649
Awareness	3, 4 Positive	160 78	3.94 4.45	1.014 1.136	3.229	0.001	139 71	3.36 3.89	1.070 1.271	3.433	0.001
	Negative	148	3.96	.975			124	3.31	1.053

Abbreviations: M, mean; SD, standard deviation.

^at value obtained from independent t-test. Awareness: The level of positive or negative awareness of energy drinks. Recognizability: The level of awareness of caffeine and taurine, which are principal ingredients of energy drinks.

Table 3.

Reasons for using energy drinks

Variable		Curiosity	Suggestions from others	Concentration enhancement	Habit	Fatigue recovery	Feel good	With friends	To relieve stress
Gender	Male	36 (22.0)	24 (14.6)	48 (29.3)	6 (3.7)	131 (79.9)	6 (3.7)	10 (6.1)	11 (6.7)
	Female	19 (17.3)	21 (19.1)	24 (21.8)	0 (0.0)	73 (66.4)	0 (0.0)	13 (11.8)	8 (7.3)
Grade	1, 2	27 (20.8)	18 (13.8)	35 (26.9)	3 (2.3)	104 (80.0)	4 (3.1)	13 (10.0)	5 (3.8)
	3, 4	28 (19.4)	27 (18.8)	37 (25.7)	3 (2.1)	100 (69.4)	2 (1.4)	10 (6.9)	14 (9.7)
Awareness	Positive Negative	9 (12.2) 32 (26.2)	7 (9.5) 26 (21.3)	26 (35.1) 27 (22.1)	0 (0.0) 5 (4.1)	62 (83.7) 81 (66.4)	3 (4.1) 2 (1.6)	5 (6.8) 11 (9.0)	7 (9.5) 9 (7.4)
Knowledge	High	2 (11.1)	3 (16.7)	8 (44.4)	1 (5.6)	15 (83.3)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	2 (11.1)
	Middle	34 (24.3)	28 (20.2)	35 (25.0)	3 (2.1)	107 (76.4)	5 (3.6)	15 (10.7)	7 (5.0)
	Low	19 (16.4)	14 (12.1)	29 (25.0)	2 (1.7)	82 (70.7)	1 (0.9)	8 (6.9)	10 (8.6)

Awareness: The level of positive or negative awareness of energy drinks.

Knowledge: The level of basic knowledge of energy drinks, including the recommended daily consumption amount and the caffeine content.

Table 4.

Factors affecting consumption of energy drink

Variable		OR	95% CI	P
Gender	Male	0.97	(0.44-2.16)	0.940
	Female	-		-
Grade^a	1, 2	0.50	(0.23-1.08)	0.077
	3, 4	-		-
Awareness	Positive	2.75	(1.05-7.18)	0.039
	Negative	-		-
Knowledge	High	1.27	(0.25-6.48)	0.773
	Middle	1.19	(0.54-2.63)	0.663
	Low	-		-

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; OR, odds ratio.

^aadjusted variable Awareness: The level of positive or negative awareness of energy drinks. Knowledge: The level of basic knowledge of energy drinks, including the recommended daily consumption amount and the caffeine content.

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