Knowledge on added sugar content in food labels among adult out-patient clinic visitors at a tertiary care teaching hospital, Riyadh, KSA

Consumption of added sugars is reported as an etiological factor for high prevalence of diet-related diseases. Food labels of food products indicate the presence of added sugars. Knowing the different terms used to describe added sugars helps people to avoid food products rich in added sugars. Therefore, it is of interest to assess consumer knowledge about the added sugar terms on food labels. A study was conducted among 215 visitors of a tertiary care hospital outpatient clinic during July-September 2020. The data for this prospective cross-sectional study was collected by using online Google form. Adult visitors of both genders were selected using a non-probability convenient sampling technique. Demography and knowledge of the added sugars were collected. SPSS version 22 was used for data analysis. Mean (± SD), median, and Inter quartile Range (IQR), and Pearson Chi-square test were used. A "p" value of < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The majority (96.7%) of the study participants was Saudi nationals with a median (IQR) age of 28 (23, 38). Most (68.37%) of the respondents were undergraduates. Physical inactivity (37.21%) and incidence of obesity (25.58%), and lifestyle diseases (15.40%) were reported. The chi-square test indicated a significant relationship between gender and knowledge of added sugars (χ2 = 69.85; p<0.05). Females (69.41%) have more knowledge about added sugars than males. These findings support the notion that there is a lack of knowledge about added sugar terms on the nutrition labels, which might contribute to the prevalence of obesity and other non-communicable chronic illnesses.