Study: Mexico’s Sugary Drink Tax Will Reduce Diabetes, Save $1 Billion in Healthcare Costs

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The tax on sugary drinks in Mexico is projected to prevent 190,000 cases of diabetes, 20,000 heart attacks and strokes, and 19,000 deaths among Mexicans ages 35-94 over the next 10 years, according to a new study.

The tax will save $1 billion in direct healthcare costs in a decade, the study found.

For the study, researchers from UC San Francisco and Mexico created a new simulation model of diabetes and heart disease to make the first long-term projections about the health and economic effects of the tax in Mexico, where 75% of adults are overweight or obese and diabetes rates are extremely high.

Mexico adopted a 10% excise tax on sugary drinks in 2014.

The tax’s effect on diabetes alone is expected to reduce health care spending on clinic visits and hospitalizations by $983 billion in international dollars, an amount that corresponds to the cost of comparable goods and services in the United States, the study found.

The researchers said the health benefits are likely to be concentrated most strongly in young adults, who consume more sugary drinks and represent a larger proportion of the Mexican population than older adults.

“Because most of the new cases of diabetes prevented are likely to be in younger adults, the health benefits may extend well into the future,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, director of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations and senior author of the study published in PLOS Medicine.

Previous research has linked the consumption of sugary drinks to diabetes, heart disease and the obesity epidemic in the U.S. and abroad.

On Oct. 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued an unrelated report that concluded that taxing sugary drinks can reduce obesity, Type 2 diabetes and tooth decay. An increase of at least 20 percent in the retail price of sugary beverages would trigger proportional reductions in the consumption of the drinks, according to the WHO report, which called the use of sugar-sweetened beverages a “major factor in the global increase of people suffering from obesity and diabetes.”

Diabetes rates have been rising in many countries, but the increase is particularly striking in Mexico, where nearly 75 percent of adults are considered overweight or obese, and where the prevalence of diabetes ranks among the highest in the world.

In the United States, several jurisdictions have enacted sugary drink taxes:

• Berkeley, California
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

See what other cities and schools are doing to reduce sugary drink consumption.

And be sure to check out the Salud America! map to see what healthy changes are happening in your neighborhood!