Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
Am J Prev Med. 2013 Feb;44(2):158-63. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2012.09.065.
Consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages including nondiet sodas, sport drinks, and energy drinks has been linked with obesity. Recent state and local efforts to tax these beverages have been unsuccessful. Enactment will be unlikely without public support, yet little research is available to assess how to effectively make the case for such taxes.
The objectives were to assess public opinion about arguments used commonly in tax debates regarding sugar-sweetened beverages and to assess differences in public opinion by respondents' political party affiliation.
A public opinion survey was fielded in January-March 2011 using a probability-based sample of respondents from a large, nationally representative online panel to examine public attitudes about nine pro- and eight anti-tax arguments. These data were analyzed in August 2011.
Findings indicated greater public agreement with anti- than pro-tax arguments. The most popular anti-tax argument was that a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages is arbitrary because it does not affect consumption of other unhealthy foods (60%). A majority also agreed that such taxes were a quick way for politicians to fill budget holes (58%); an unacceptable intrusion of government into people's lives (53.8%); opposed by most Americans (53%); and harmful to the poor (51%). No pro-tax arguments were endorsed by a majority of the public. Respondents reported highest agreement with the argument that sugar-sweetened beverages were the single largest contributor to obesity (49%) and would raise revenue for obesity prevention (41%).
Without bolstering public support for existing pro-tax messages or developing alternative pro-tax messages, enacting such policies will be difficult. Message-framing studies could be useful in identifying promising strategies for persuading Americans that taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages are warranted.
饮用含糖饮料，包括非节食苏打水、运动饮料和能量饮料，与肥胖有关。最近，州和地方政府对这些饮料征税的努力都没有成功。如果没有公众的支持，立法是不太可能的，但几乎没有研究可以评估如何有效地提出此类税收的理由。
本研究旨在评估公众对含糖饮料税收辩论中常用论点的看法，并评估不同政党认同的公众意见差异。
2011 年 1 月至 3 月，采用基于概率的大型全国代表性在线小组的受访者样本进行了一项公众意见调查，以调查公众对九项赞成税和八项反税论点的态度。这些数据于 2011 年 8 月进行了分析。
调查结果表明，公众对反税论点的认同度高于赞成税论点。最受欢迎的反税论点是，对含糖饮料征税是任意的，因为它不会影响其他不健康食品的消费（60%）。大多数人还认为，此类税收是政客填补预算漏洞的一种快速方式（58%）；是政府对人民生活的不可接受的侵犯（53.8%）；大多数美国人反对（53%）；对穷人有害（51%）。没有赞成税的论点得到了大多数公众的支持。受访者报告说，含糖饮料是导致肥胖的最大单一因素（49%），并将为肥胖预防筹集资金（41%）的论点最受认同。
如果不支持现有的赞成税信息，或制定替代的赞成税信息，那么制定此类政策将是困难的。信息框架研究可能有助于确定有前途的策略，说服美国人对含糖饮料征税是合理的。
