[Breakfast habits and overweight in Danish schoolchildren. The role of socioeconomic positions]

Abstract

Introduction: The prevalence of adolescent overweight has increased dramatically, and in many industrialised countries overweight is most prevalent in lower socioeconomic positions (SEP). It is therefore important to examine determinants of overweight and to understand the mechanisms behind social patterning. Several studies show that skipping breakfast is a risk factor for overweight. However, it is unknown whether this association is consistent across SEP. The aim was to examine the association between the frequency of eating breakfast and overweight among Danish adolescents and to examine whether the association differs between different SEP.

Materials and methods: The study is a cross-sectional school survey including all 11, 13, and 15-year-olds in a random sample of schools in Denmark, participation rate 89.3%, n=4,824. The study was the sixth Danish contribution to the international research project Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC). SEP was measured by parental occupational class and the frequency of breakfast was measured by the weekly number of weekdays on which breakfast was eaten.

Results: Skipping breakfast is associated with overweight. The OR (95% CI) for overweight was 1.80 (1.38-2.36) among students who only ate breakfast 0-1 weekday per week. Frequent consumption of breakfast is less protective against overweight among low-SEP schoolchildren than high-SEP schoolchildren.

Conclusion: No former studies have analysed the influence of SEP on the association between skipping breakfast and overweight. We found that frequent consumption of breakfast is most protective against overweight among high-SEP schoolchildren.