Skip to main content

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Oral. Health

Sec. Oral Health Promotion

Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/froh.2025.1520861

This article is part of the Research Topic Public Health Policies for Improved Oral Health Outcomes View all 11 articles

Effectiveness of sugar taxation policies in Asia and Africa: A Systematic Review

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Asian Development Research Institute, Patna, Bihar, India
  • 2 Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore, India
  • 3 Humble Smile Foundation India, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 4 Goa Dental College and Hospital, Bambolim, Goa, India
  • 5 Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: The prevalence of major noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes is rising rapidly in Asia and Africa. One of the major modifiable risk factors for these diseases is the consumption of free sugars, commonly found in sugary drinks. To address this issue, some countries have implemented food taxes such as taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages as part of national public health policies to reduce its intake. The review aims to assess the effects of national taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages within the continents of Asia and Africa.Methods: Eight databases (MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase, PubMed, Cochrane, SCOPUS, Web of Science and ProQuest) were searched, and seven studies were included in this review. Only studies focused on the taxation of SSBs in Asia and Africa until 30 June 2023 and those that studied the impact of national sugar taxation among their population were included. Simulation or studies evaluating the estimation effect of taxes were excluded. All eligible records were assessed for the risk of bias using the NIH Quality Assessment Tool for Observational Cohort and Cross-Sectional Studies, and the certainty of the evidence was reviewed.Results: Seven studies included in this review investigated the impact of sugar tax policies in South Africa, India, Thailand, and Saudi Arabia. The interventions in these countries were implemented from 2017 to 2018 mainly for sugar-sweetened beverages. The studies provided evidence on changes in the volume of purchase, consumption, and sugar content of taxed items. Some evidence was found to suggest the positive impact of SSB taxes in reducing consumption of taxed items which ranged from 2.5% to 19% decrease. However, no study has reported on individual health outcomes.Conclusion: There is substantial evidence of a decrease in the consumption of taxed items, but there is uncertainty about the health impact of these outcomes. Future research should prioritize longitudinal studies assessing direct health impacts of SSB taxation policies. Additionally, generalizability of the results of such fiscal policies need to be investigated in lower economic settings and thus be of significance for uniform health policy reforms. Registration: This systematic review is registered on PROSPERO (CRD42023427030)

    Keywords: sugar, Taxation, policies, Asia, Africa, Sweetened beverage, Non communicable disease

    Received: 31 Oct 2024; Accepted: 25 Mar 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Fernandes, Jodalli, Saeed, Gaunkar, Almalki, Gowdar and Nagarsekar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Praveen S Jodalli, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore, India

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

    Research integrity at Frontiers

    Man ultramarathon runner in the mountains he trains at sunset

    95% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good

    Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.


    Find out more