The Relationship Between Breakfast Skipping and Body Mass Index in College Students

Abstract

Background: As the first meal of the day, breakfast performs a significant role in providing energy and nutrients to sustain the energy needed for the body. However, skipping breakfast has increasingly been a habit among students. Some individuals are highly prone to the misconception that skipping breakfast leads to a lowering of the body mass index (BMI). Instead, plausibly, the habit of regular breakfast consumption may help in maintaining a healthy weight. Objective: The objectives of this study were to investigate whether skipping breakfast is related to body weight among college students. Also, the other objective included evaluating the association between consumption of cereals at breakfast and BMI among college students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among male and female college students. One hundred students were recruited from health-related and non-health-related majors. An online survey was used to assess breakfast consumption habits. Self-reporting of height and weight was used to assess BMI. Results: The study found that 51 students skipped breakfast and 49 students consumed breakfast. Although the confidence interval for BMI of students ranged between 19.09 - 31.09, the mean BMI was 25.09, somewhat minimizing the differences between breakfast skippers and breakfast consumers and also preordaining the conclusions to some extent. Not surprisingly, therefore, the study showed no significant association between skipping breakfast and BMI (p > 0.05). The one fact that stood out to support the null hypothesis was the number of obese students was more (10) in the breakfast skipper group, compared to the obese (7) in the breakfast consumer group. The study found that there was no significant relationship between the consumption of cereal and BMI (p> 0.05). Male participants were found to consume cereal at breakfast more than female participants (p<0.01). Also, graduate students have higher BMI than undergraduate students (p<0.01). Conclusion: There is little significant relationship between skipping breakfast and BMI. Further, the consumption of cereal was not found to be a significant influence on BMI. Nevertheless, a few Odds Ratios lend feeble support to the null hypothesis that breakfast skippers tend to be overweight and obese more than breakfast consumers.