Energy drink consumption among medical high school students in Serbia

Energy drinks have become very popular among adolescents. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of energy drinkconsumption alone and in combination with alcohol among medical high school students according to gender and grade, as wellas to evaluate their knowledge of its adverse eff ects. The cross-sectional survey was conducted using an anonymous questionnaire.A total of 258 medical high school students, 162 female and 96 male, were surveyed. The χ2-test was used to test age and genderdiff erences in energy drink consumption. Study results showed nearly half of the students to take energy drinks, 1.56% of them takingthese beverages every day. A higher percentage of female students did not take these drinks (54%), while 32% of male studentsreported taking these drinks once a week. Also, 28% of consumers of these beverages reported taking alcohol mixed with energydrinks. In conclusion, a signifi cant proportion of medical high school students used energy drinks. Further studies are needed toevaluate the impact of long-term energy drink consumption. It is also necessary to focus on the problem of mixing energy drinks withalcohol and to implement appropriate school based health promotion programs among medical high school students that willhelp them gain knowledge and skills for applying health promotion in their future medical profession.

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