Skipping Breakfast is Associated with Poor Vegetable Intake Among College Students in Japan

Background:Recently young adults in Japan frequently show several dietary lifestyle problems such asskipping breakfast and poor vegetable intake. The present study investigated whether skipping breakfast isassociated with dietary intake, especially vegetable consumption, in college students.Methods:A total of 151 Japanese college students aged 18-21 participated in this cross-sectional study.Of these, we selected 125 (57 males and 68 females) participants who provided complete responses to thequestionnaire, the brief-type self-administered diet history questionnaire( BDHQ), for assessment of dietaryintake during the past 1 month. The frequency of eating breakfast, weight and height were confirmed in thequestionnaire. Breakfast in this study was defined as a meal in the morning that included grain dishes suchas rice and bread. Subjects who frequently skipped breakfast were defined as those who skipped breakfasttwice or more weekly, based on the median frequency of skipping breakfast among all data from 125 participants.Results:The proportion of respondents who skipped breakfast was significantly higher among males(64.9 %) than among females (44.1 %) (p=0.020). The multiple logistic regression analysis adjusted forgender, BMI category, drinking status and energy intake showed that the proportion of those with a vegetableintake of 350 g or more daily in the group that skipped breakfast was significantly lower than that in thegroup that ate breakfast( Odds ratio 0.22, 95% confidence interval 0.07-0.67).Conclusions:The present findings suggest that Japanese college students who habitually skip breakfastalso tend to have a poor vegetable intake