Why Do Adolescents Skip Breakfast? A Study on the Mediterranean Diet and Risk Factors

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Skipping breakfast is increasingly common among adolescents and has been associated with adverse health and academic outcomes. The average prevalence of breakfast skipping among adolescents is around 16%, although worldwide, it varies greatly across studies, ranging from 1.3 to 74.7%. This study aimed to assess the frequency of daily breakfast consumption and explore the factors associated with its omission in a stratified sample of Spanish adolescents. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 547 third-year secondary school students (aged 14-15) from both urban and rural areas in Castilla-La Mancha. Self-reported questionnaires were used to gather sociodemographic, psychosocial, and lifestyle data, including adherence to the Mediterranean diet (via the Kidmed questionnaire) and breakfast habits during school days. Descriptive, bivariate (Chi-square), and multivariate (binary logistic regression) analyses were conducted separately for boys and girls. Results: Findings showed a high prevalence of breakfast skipping one or more days (33.46%), with a significantly higher rate among girls (43.27%) than among boys (24.42%). Also, girls were more likely than boys to skip breakfast every day (14.18% vs. 6.87%, p < 0.001). In both groups, low adherence to the Mediterranean diet was strongly associated with skipping breakfast, along with higher screen time, shorter sleep duration, and being overweight/obese. Among girls, low olive oil consumption (OR 0.145 (CI 0.03-0.67) p 0.014) and poor Mediterranean diet adherence (OR 0.140 (CI 0.06-0.34) p < 0.001) were significant predictors. For boys, being overweight/obese (OR 2.185 (CI 1.06-4.52) p 0.035), low Mediterranean diet adherence (OR 0.136 (CI 0.06-0.32) p < 0.001), and not eating industrial pastries were associated factors (OR 0.413 (CI 0.20-0.88) p 0.022). Predictive models demonstrated good discriminatory power (AUC = 0.807 for girls; 0.792 for boys). Conclusions: Skipping breakfast is prevalent among adolescents, particularly girls, and is linked to poor dietary patterns and excess weight. These findings underscore the need for gender-specific nutritional interventions to promote regular breakfast consumption and improve dietary habits in adolescents.

Keywords: Mediterranean; adolescent; breakfast; diet; obesity; overweight; skipping.

Figure 1

ROC curve for the female model. Area under the ROC curve to determine the predictive ability of the model in girls, representing sensitivity on the ordinate axis and 1-specificity on the abscissa.

Figure 2

ROC curve for the male model. Area under the ROC curve to determine the predictive ability of the model in boys, representing the sensitivity on the ordinate axis and 1-specificity on the abscissa.