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Is the frequency of breakfast consumption associated with life satisfaction in children and adolescents? A cross-sectional study with 154,151 participants from 42 countries
The promotion of regular breakfast consumption and the importance of making healthy breakfast choices are key public health messages. This study by López-Gil et al. (2024) aimed to explore the relationship between how often children and adolescents eat breakfast and their overall life satisfaction, using a large, representative sample of school-aged children and adolescents (ages 10–17) from 42 different countries (data collected from the 2017/2018 Health Behavior in School-aged Children study). A total of 155,451 participants (51.3% girls) were included. Breakfast consumption was gauged by asking participants the following question “How often do you typically have breakfast (more than just milk or fruit juice)?” while a subjective scale ranging from 0 (lowest quality of life score) to 10 (highest possible quality of life score) explored participants’ life satisfaction. Analysis of the results revealed that, after adjusting for various factors, the lowest life satisfaction score was found among those who skipped breakfast, while those who ate breakfast every day reported the highest life satisfaction. A nearly linear relationship was observed between frequent breakfast consumption and higher life satisfaction. Further analysis of country-specific findings demonstrated that Romanian children who skipped breakfast had the lowest life satisfaction, whereas those in Portugal who ate breakfast daily reported the highest levels of life satisfaction. According to these results, the authors comment that children and teenagers who have breakfast more frequently report feeling more satisfied with their lives compared to their peers. These results underscore the importance of promoting regular breakfast consumption, particularly during this critical developmental period, and suggest a need for global efforts to encourage breakfast eating among young people. [NPID: Eating healthy, wellbeing, mental health, youth, adolescence, childhood]
Year: 2024
