Megally Rania, Al-Jawaldeh Ayoub
Economics, British University in Egypt, Giza, 11837, Egypt.
Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), World Health Organization (WHO), Cairo, 11371, Egypt.
F1000Res. 2020 Sep 10;9:1117. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.25853.2. eCollection 2020.
The consumption of sweetened drinks plays a major role in increasing the burden of diseases such as obesity and cardiovascular diseases. The prevalence rate of obesity and overweight individuals in Saudi Arabia has increased alarmingly among children over the past decade, revealing a crucial need the initiate and monitor effective prevention measures of obesity. Hence, this paper aims to measure the impact of sin taxes of sugar-sweetened beverages on the consumption level of such beverages in Saudi Arabia. Building enough evidence to guide other countries in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) on how to reduce the level of sugar intake consumption to reduce obesity and malnutrition has an impact on the economy as a whole. The excise taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages were applied in 2017. The impact of this was measured using a time series data set that covered sales volumes of soft drinks in Saudi Arabia from 2010 to 2020. Sin taxes had a significant negative impact on the sales volume over the years. A significance level of <1% was found as sales volume of soft drinks decreased by 57.64% from 2010 to 2017 when sin taxes were applied on energy and soft drinks. Sin tax policy is recommended to other countries in the EMR to reduce obesity levels among children. These recommendations advocate the recommended priority actions by the World Health Organization for the strategy on nutrition for the EMR 2020-2030.
饮用含糖饮料在增加肥胖和心血管疾病等疾病负担方面起着主要作用。在过去十年中，沙特阿拉伯儿童肥胖和超重个体的患病率急剧上升，这表明迫切需要启动并监测有效的肥胖预防措施。因此，本文旨在衡量对含糖饮料征收罪恶税对沙特阿拉伯此类饮料消费水平的影响。积累足够的证据，以指导东地中海区域（EMR）的其他国家如何降低糖摄入量，以减少肥胖和营养不良，这对整个经济都有影响。对含糖饮料征收的消费税于2017年开始实施。使用涵盖2010年至2020年沙特阿拉伯软饮料销量的时间序列数据集来衡量其影响。多年来，罪恶税对销量产生了显著的负面影响。当对能量饮料和软饮料征收罪恶税时，发现显著性水平<1%，因为从2010年到2017年软饮料销量下降了57.64%。建议东地中海区域的其他国家采用罪恶税政策来降低儿童肥胖水平。这些建议倡导世界卫生组织针对2020 - 2030年东地中海区域营养战略提出的优先行动建议。
