Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the actual condition of the sport drink intake on children.
We conducted an investigation by means of questionnairs at 3 nursery schools and a day nursery in and around Hiroshima City, and using 505 answers with the comparison between 4 areas.
The following results were obtained:
1) Less than 10% of the children often took sport drinks and about 70% of the children sometimes.
2) In response to the question of when taken,40-50% of answers revealed that the drinks were taken when the children ill and 20-40% of answers were take from home.
3) In response to the question as to why children begin to take the drinks, many parents answered that they were advised by a doctor and a nurse to give their child sport drinks to prevent for dehydration, when their children were ill. This answer accounted for about 60% of the answers to this question.
4) Parents imagined that fruit drinks, carbonated beverages and beverages with lactic acid promoted tooth decay.
Also the image of cariogenecity was less than 100% fruit juices, home-made juices, sport drinks, cow milks and water or tea in that order.
The results suggest that parents regard sport drinks as beverages which do not promote tooth decay and give their child sport drinks frequency.
