Caffeinated beverages consumption habits among high school students

Abstract

Background: The new trends in consumer behaviour are aligning to the tendency of the radically accelerated things. One of this kind of trend is the appreciation of the time saving products. The purpose of our research was to assess the different types of caffeine consumption and the frequency of use of energy drinks among high school and vocational secondary school students.
Method: The research took place in January and February 2019. As a first step, it was requested the permission from the school directors to allocate the questionnaire. The different question groups of the self-made self-filled questionnaire are socio-demographic data, data on caffeine consumption, purchasing habits and lifestyle issues of these products. In addition to descriptive statistical analysis Chi-square test was performed using SPSS.
Results: The average age of the interviewed 180 students was 18.2 years. In terms of gender, girls appeared to be 61%. Based on the responses, it turned out that students in vocational secondary schools consumed more energy drink and much often than high school students. In addition, it also turned out that they were more likely to try new branded energy drinks. In terms of residence, young people living in smaller settlements are characterized by excessive energy drink intake and they are less likely to consider the effects caused by caffeine. Instead, the taste is the main factor that dominates them. Urban students consider coffee as their favourite product in higher rate than their village counterparts do. In case of genders, after processing the data, it can be stated that coffee is more popular among females than males. It is more typical for female gender to get tired faster if they do not drink caffeinated product.
Conclusions: It would be necessary to start educating young people for a healthy lifestyle as early as childhood, as the research shows that adolescents are unaware of the harmful health effects of caffeinated-containing enjoyment items.