Breakfast Eating Habits and Its Influence on Nutritional Status

Abstract

Abstract Background  Breakfast intake is considered as one of the most important factors in nutrition for adolescents, but the intake of breakfast has declined in past 25 years especially among adolescents. Breakfast not only fuels your body but also aids in carrying out whole day activities by providing the required energy. Objectives  The objectives of the study were to identify the breakfast eating and skipping patterns, identify the nutritional status, and find association between breakfast skipping and nutritional status among nursing students. Methods  To achieve this aim, a cross-sectional survey was performed among nursing students. The data related to patterns of breakfast skipping and eating was collected followed by assessment of nutritional status by checking weight and height of each student and was interpreted as per the World Health Organization criteria. Results  Out of 437 samples, a majority of 305 (69.8%) students belonged to (17–21) years of age and most of the students 409 (93.6%) were females. It was found that approximately 214 (48.97%) students were skipping breakfast three times in a week. A significant association was found between nutritional status and breakfast skipping (χ 2  = 6.61, p  = 0.03). Conclusion  Breakfast being first meal of the day not only provides us energy but also maintains our nutrition on everyday basis. Thereby, the study concludes that breakfast skipping affects nutritional status if skipped for more than twice in a week on a longer run. Thus, the students should be motivated to have breakfast before beginning their everyday's activity.