Breakfast Skipping and Related Factors in Children in Poverty

초록

Purpose: To investigate the frequency of breakfast skipping and affecting factors in children in poverty. Methods: The subjects were 644 children who were receiving the services of community child center or delivery meal-box. They were asked about their socio-demographic characteristics, health behaviors and breakfast-skipping status in the survey. Results: Breakfast-skippers were 17.4% of the subjects. The count of negative health behaviors in breakfast skippers was higher than that in eaters, and the behaviors of exercise, screen time, alcohol experience, and smoking experience were worse in skippers than in eaters. The odds ratio of breakfast skipping was higher in female children (OR=2.53, p<.001), those with single father (OR=3.76, p<.001) or single mother (OR=1.83 p=.030), those with alcohol experience (OR=1.82, p=.022) and smoking experience (OR=2.80, p=.003), and under-weight ones (OR=2.54, p=.048). Conclusion: Breakfast skipping is associated with gender, family structure, alcohol experience, smoking experience and BMI. Children in poverty need comprehensive health promotion programs including interventions for breakfast skipping and health behaviors.

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