Background Long-term excessive consuming sugar-sweetened beverages have a negative impact on health. In order to decrease the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and create a healthy food environment, the Health Commission of Shenzhen Municipality pioneered to enforce health warning labels presented in commercial locations vending sugar-sweetened beverages based on relevant provisions of the Health Regulations of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, but its effect has not yet been evaluated.

Objective To evaluate the impact of presenting health warning labels in commercial locations vending sugar-sweetened beverages in Shenzhen.

Methods A multi-stage stratified sampling method was used to randomly select one street in each of the 10 districts (excluding the Shenzhen Shantou Special Cooperation Zone) of Shenzhen followed by a convenience sampling to select sampling sites to conduct an undercover investigation on the presentation of health warning labels for sugar-sweetened beverages in six different types of venues (n=232) such as shopping malls, ordinary supermarkets/convenience stores, self-service vending machines, catering service places, medical institutions, and venues serving minors' education and activities. At the same time, 238 site managers, 1002 adult consumers, and 7396 child and adolescent consumers were interviewed.

Results Among 213 commercial locations vending sugar-sweetened beverages, the rate of health warning label installation was 26.3%, with the highest installation rate in shopping malls (55.0%). Among site managers, 47.8% were aware that commercial locations were required to install health warning labels, and 50.0% were aware of the standards for setting up health warning labels. The higher the awareness of relevant regulations, the higher the rate of installation of health warning labels. More than half of site managers (55.3%) believed that after installing health warning labels, the sales of sugar-sweetened beverages and sugar-sweetened beverages in large-volume packages had decreased compared to the same period in previous years. Most of the interviewed consumers indicated that if they saw the health warning labels for sugar-sweetened beverages, they would buy less, give up purchasing, or choose low-sugar or sugar-free beverages, and also discourage their family members or friends from drinking such beverages. Compared with participants without awareness of the health warning labels, both adult and child and adolescent consumers with awareness of the health warning labels believed that the installation is beneficial to their good eating habits and reported a higher proportion of discouraging family members or friends from drinking such beverages, with a lower frequency of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages.

Conclusion Health warning labels for sugar-sweetened beverages have a significant effect on promoting behavior changes, and both site managers and citizens have a high level of support for them. However, in view of the low voluntary compliance rate of commercial locations and the installation rate of health warning labels, the publicity and enforcement of the Health Regulations of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone should be enhanced.