Energy Drinks Consumption Among Undergraduate Students at a Sri Lankan State University

Background: The expanding global market for energy drinks is increasingly directed towards the youth and young adult demographic, prompting healthcare professionals to express concerns about potential health risks associated with their consumption. Currently, there is an observed trend suggesting a link between the consumption of energy drinks among young adults and subsequent substance use; however, this association remains insufficiently examined within university undergraduates in Sri Lanka. The current study aimed to assess the prevalence of energy drink consumption, associations, awareness of health-related risks, and potential relationship with substance use among residential undergraduates at the University of Colombo.
Methods: This research employed a descriptive design and enrolled 361 undergraduate participants residing in the university hostels. A self-developed online questionnaire, pre-validated for accuracy, was administered to collect socio-demographic data, frequency, reasons for energy drink consumption, perceived associations, awareness of adverse effects, and potential association between energy drink consumption and subsequent substance use. Data analysis involved computing percentages, frequencies, and assessing relationships. The threshold of significance was considered less than 0.05.
Results: Of the participants, 38.8% were male, with the majority (52.9%) falling within the age range of 23 to 25 years. The prevalence of energy drink consumption was 31%, with 47.3% of users reporting infrequent usage. The flavor was the main driver of consumption, and 89.8% of individuals were unaware of the potential health risks. There was a strong association found between the usage of alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis, marijuana, and tobacco and the consumption of energy drinks (p<0.05).
Conclusions: This study showed a significant prevalence of energy drink consumption among undergraduate hostellers and identified several reasons for consumption, including flavor, social influence, and participating in sports. The majority of the hostellers had poor awareness regarding health-related risks linked with energy drink consumption. Findings of this study demonstrate that consuming energy drinks is a potential risk factor for subsequent substance abuse.