Abstract

Objective:Our objectives were to describe sociodemographic characteristics associated with the purchase of (1) any fruit drinks and (2) fruit drinks with specific front-of-package (FOP) nutrition claims. Design:Cross-sectional. Setting:USA Participants:We merged fruit drink purchasing data from 60 712 household-months from 5233 households with children 0-5 years participating in Nielsen Homescan in 2017 with nutrition claims data. We examined differences in predicted probabilities of purchasing any fruit drinks by race/ethnicity, income and education. We constructed inverse probability (IP) weights based on likelihood of purchasing any fruit drinks. We used IP-weighted multivariable logistic regression models to examine predicted probabilities of purchasing fruit drinks with specific FOP claims. Results:One-third of households with young children purchased any fruit drinks. Non-Hispanic (NH) Black (51 center dot 6 %), Hispanic (36 center dot 3 %), lower-income (39 center dot 3 %) and lower-educated households (40 center dot 9 %) were more likely to purchase any fruit drinks than NH White (31 center dot 3 %), higher-income (25 center dot 8 %) and higher-educated households (30 center dot 3 %) (all P < 0 center dot 001). In IP-weighted analyses, NH Black households were more likely to purchase fruit drinks with 'Natural' and fruit or fruit flavour claims (6 center dot 8 % and 3 center dot 7 %) than NH White households (4 center dot 5 % and 2 center dot 7 %) (both P < 0 center dot 01). Lower- and middle-income (15 center dot 0 % and 13 center dot 8 %) and lower- and middle-educated households (15 center dot 4 % and 14 center dot 5 %) were more likely to purchase fruit drinks with '100 % Vitamin C' claims than higher-income (10 center dot 8 %) and higher-educated households (12 center dot 9 %) (all P < 0 center dot 025). Conclusions:We found a higher likelihood of fruit drink purchases in lower-income, lower-educated, NH Black and Hispanic households. Experimental studies should determine if nutrition claims may be contributing to disparities in fruit drink consumption.