Breakfast Consumption and Weight Status in High School Students
By: Kaitlyn Taylor
Loyola University Chicago -- Dietetic Internship Certificate Program
Background
“Breakfast is the most important
meal of the day” is a saying that has
been around for many years. For
teens, it is especially true. Research
shows that a healthy breakfast can
provide teens with energy,
improved concentration, better
grades, and a healthy weight1.
However, breakfast can still end up
being the most skipped meal due to
morning priorities, sleep schedules,
and varying appetites. Definitions of
breakfast vary, but for this analysis,
breakfast has been defined as
anything eaten before 10:00 a.m.2.
Objective
To evaluate whether there is a
correlation between breakfast
consumption or lack thereof and
being overweight in a random
sample of high school students.
Methods
This analysis uses data from the
Freshmen Wellness Assessment
collected at Proviso East High School. 361
students participated in the assessment,
however a random sample of 50 boys
and 50 girls that had both breakfast and
BMI percentile data was used. Exclusion
criteria was incomplete data. 44 students
were overweight and of that 44, 26 were
female and 18 were male. (Figure 1)
The Freshman Wellness Assessment
also collected 24 hour dietary recall data
using the program ASA24. ASA24 was
utilized in order to determine what time
breakfast was consumed.
Chi square tests were used to evaluate
whether the male and female students
that were overweight (determined by
their BMI percentile) consumed
breakfast at or before 10:00 a.m. or not. A
two-sided P value <0.05 was used to
determine statistical significance.
Data was analyzed using SPSS version
24.0 for categorical variables using Chi-
Square analysis.
.
Results
Results for this randomized sample
of 100 students were as follows:
● 67 students consumed breakfast
(p=0.76)
○ Of that 67, 30 were female and
37 were male
● 15 students did not consume
breakfast and were overweight
while 40 students consumed
breakfast and were normal weight
(p=0.554) (Figure 2)
○ Of that 15, 10 were female and 15
were male (Figure 3)
○ Of that 40, 15 were female and 25
were male (Figure 3)
Overall, females tended to be more
overweight and to not consume
breakfast. Most students in this
sample did consume breakfast and
were at a normal weight.
Conclusions & Discussion
● There was not a significant
statistical difference between
students that were overweight and
lack of breakfast consumption
(p=0.554) .
● To promote consistency, a
standard definition of breakfast
needs to be defined to prevent
conflicting research results.
● Quality of breakfast was not
examined in this analysis, but
should also be taken into account
for future research on the
relationship between weight and
breakfast consumption.
References
1. Retelny, V. (2018, August 31). 5 Reasons
Your Teen Needs Breakfast. Retrieved from
https://www.eatright.org/food/nutrition/heal
thy-eating/5-reasons-your-teen-needs-
breakfast
2. O'Neil, C. E., et al. (2014, December). The
role of breakfast in health: Definition and
criteria for a quality breakfast. Retrieved
from
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2545
8994