Breakfast skipping and change in body mass index in young children

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Childhood obesity is prevalent, and dietary habits are a key determinant. Some children skip breakfast for weight control, but studies have shown mixed results. Therefore, we assessed the association between breakfast skipping and body mass index (BMI) among young Chinese children in Hong Kong. Design/Subjects and Methods: A cohort of 113 457 primary 4 participants of the Department of Health Student Health Service in 1998-2000 was followed up for 2 years, with 68 606 (60.5%) participants available for analysis in primary 6. The sociodemographic characteristics for traced and untraced participants were similar. At baseline and follow-up, students reported breakfast habit (consumed vs skipped) and other lifestyle characteristics using a standardized questionnaire. BMI was derived using height and weight measured by trained nurses. Multivariable linear regression was used to examine the cross-sectional relationship between breakfast habit and BMI, as well as the prospective association between baseline breakfast habit and change in BMI. Models adjusted for demographic, socioeconomic and lifestyle characteristics. Results: A total of 1805 (5.3%) boys and 1793 (5.2%) girls skipped breakfast at baseline. In cross-sectional analyses, breakfast skippers had a higher mean BMI than did eaters among both primary 4 (b ¼ 0.77, 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.67-0.87) (Po0.001) and primary 6 children (b ¼ 0.86, 95% CI: 0.78-0.95) (Po0.001). Compared with eaters, baseline breakfast skippers experienced a greater increase in BMI in the subsequent 2 years (b ¼ 0.11, 95% CI: 0.07-0.16) (Po0.001), and this association was stronger among lunch skippers than eaters (P for interaction ¼ 0.04). Conclusion: Our study provided prospective evidence that skipping breakfast predicts a greater increase in BMI among Hong Kong children. As breakfast is a modifiable dietary habit, our results may have important implications for weight control. However, the underlying mechanism of this effect warrants further investigation

The Prevalence of Breakfast Skipping and its Association with Lifestyle Factors and Weight in 11-15 years Adolescents from Selected Lebanese Regions

“…Furthermore, the intake of fruits, vegetables, pastries and sweets were similar for adolescent that were skippers and non-skippers. This was not consistent in the literature [29]. This inconsistency might be explained by the changes in dietary behaviors among adolescents apart from breakfast eating.…”

“…Socio-economic variables did not affect skippers as mentioned in the literature [29][30][31]. This could be due to the similarity in SES for the adolescent that tend to skip or not breakfast with majority of them had middle income.…”

Prevalence and factors associated with overweight and obesity in French primary-school children

“…Indeed, children having breakfast every day had a lower risk than children who never or sometimes had breakfast. There is growing evidence of the association between regular breakfast consumption and health: breakfast intake may reduce the risk of chronic diseases due to its potential impact on the composition of overall diet (32,33) and also reduce the risk of becoming overweight (10,34,35) . Children from our 5-7-year-old sample eating at the canteen every day had a significantly lower risk of being obese than those who never ate at the canteen (data not available for the 7-11-year-old sample).…”

Patterns of lifestyle-related behaviors and parents’ overweight are associated with increased body adiposity in schoolchildren: a cross-sectional study in Portugal

“…Skipping breakfast, in particular, has short-and longterm effects on children [46,47], and researchers have observed a tendency for this behavior to persist from childhood into adulthood, and was associated with a greater WC, higher fasting insulin, a higher BMI, and higher total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol concentrations [9]. An association between skipping breakfast and poor-quality diets that influence the weight status of children has also been observed [47,48].…”