Abstract
Insight into breakfast consumption of children and adolescents is of public health concern, for several reasons as it has been associated with positive outcomes for diet quality, micronutrient intake, BMI status and lifestyle factors. Studies suggest that eating a breakfast which contains sufficiently balanced nutrients has a beneficial impact on both student health - in terms of nutrient intake height-to-weight ratio and early physical development - and cognitive skills such as focused attention and memory recall. Skipping breakfast or consuming an inadequate breakfast contributes to dietary inadequacies that are seldom compensated for at other meals. Present study aims at studying the effect of breakfast skipping on the nutritional status and cognition of school going children. An exploratory cross sectional study was undertaken to assess and compare the nutritional status of school going children eating breakfast and those skipping it. The total sample size was 195 school going students aged 10-16 years old. Chi-square test and t-test were used for statistical analysis using SPSS software. According to the results of the current study, the prevalence of breakfast skipping among school going children of age 10-16 years old is 23.50% in selected areas of Udupi district. More number of breakfast skippers were found to be overweight than breakfast non-skippers (p =0.992). The intakes of cereals (p<0.01), milk (p<0.001), vegetables (p<0.05), and fruits (p<0.05) were significantly less in breakfast skippers. However intakes of fat (p<0.05) and miscellaneous foods (p<0.05) like junk food that are high in saturated fat were significantly high in breakfast skippers than breakfast non-skippers. A significant difference was also seen in a no. of parameters like memory (p<0.001), concentration (p<0.001), grades obtained (p<0.001), attendance (p<0.001) etc between breakfast skippers and breakfast non-skippers. The study indicates that skipping breakfast affects both the nutritional status as well as the school performance of the students. The study strongly favours breakfast plays an important role for adequate nutrition of school children and has a major impact on cognition.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 98-117 |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Health and Population: Perspectives and Issues |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue number | 3-4 |
| Publication status | Published - 01-07-2014 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Epidemiology
- Health(social science)
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
