Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec id="S1368980017000611_abs1" sec-type="general"><jats:title>Objective</jats:title><jats:p>To identify demographic and consumer characteristics associated with refilling a soft drink at fast-food restaurants and the estimated energy content and volume of those refills.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S1368980017000611_abs2" sec-type="general"><jats:title>Design</jats:title><jats:p>Logistic and linear regression with cross-sectional survey data.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S1368980017000611_abs3" sec-type="general"><jats:title>Setting</jats:title><jats:p>Data include fast-food restaurant receipts and consumer surveys collected from restaurants in New York City (all boroughs except Staten Island), and Newark and Jersey City, New Jersey, during 2013 and 2014.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S1368980017000611_abs4" sec-type="subjects"><jats:title>Subjects</jats:title><jats:p>Fast-food restaurant customers (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic> 11795) from ninety-eight restaurants.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S1368980017000611_abs5" sec-type="results"><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Thirty per cent of fast-food customers ordered a refillable soft drink. Nine per cent of fast-food customers with a refillable soft drink reported refilling their beverage (3 % of entire sample). Odds of having a beverage refill were higher among respondents with a refillable soft drink at restaurants with a self-serve refill kiosk (adjusted OR (aOR)=7·37, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic><0·001) or who ate in the restaurant (aOR=4·45, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic><0·001). KFC (aOR=2·18, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic><0·001) and Wendy’s (aOR=0·41, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic><0·001) customers had higher and lower odds, respectively, of obtaining a refill, compared with Burger King customers. Respondents from New Jersey (aOR=1·47, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic><0·001) also had higher odds of refilling their beverage than New York City customers. Customers who got a refill obtained on average 29 more ‘beverage ounces’ (858 ml) and 250 more ‘beverage calories’ (1046 kJ) than customers who did not get a refill.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S1368980017000611_abs6" sec-type="conclusions"><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>Refilling a beverage was associated with having obtained more beverage calories and beverage ounces. Environmental cues, such as the placement and availability of self-serve beverage refills, may influence consumer beverage choice.</jats:p></jats:sec>