Examining the association between breakfast and health-related quality of life (HRQoL): a cross-sectional study of tenth-grade students in Witten, Germany (GeWIT study)

Abstract Aim To investigate Health-Related Quality of life (HRQoL), a multidimensional perceptive about physical, psychological and social well-being, and its association with skipping breakfast among adolescents. Subject and methods This cross-sectional study is part of GeWIT Project (November 2021-February 2022). Tenth-grade students from nine secondary municipally managed schools in Witten, Germany were included. Data was obtained from self-reported questionnaire. Overall HRQoL was measured with KIDSCREEN-10, which covered physical, psychological, relationships with parents and friends, and school performance. Logistic regression of breakfast skipping and HRQoL adjusted for gender, age, school type, Subjective Social Status (SSS), migration background, body mass index, and physical activity was performed. Results From 649 participants, 644 adolescents were included in the analysis (response rate: 98.3%). 46.1% and 50.8% of the adolescents reported low HRQoL and skipped breakfast respectively. There was higher percentage of low HRQoL in skipping breakfast group than breakfast group (54.7% vs. 37.2%). Adolescents who skipped breakfast had significantly two times greater odds of having low HRQoL than did those who ate breakfast (aOR: 1.93, 95%CI: 1.36–2.74). Conclusions Skipping breakfast was shown to be significantly associated with higher odds of low HRQoL. In addition with health campaign to raise awareness about the importance of breakfast, monitoring on existing breakfast programs could be advantageous. Future studies to investigate the reasons of skipping breakfast among adolescents as basic for public health efforts could be valuable. Longitudinal study about breakfast and its effect to HRQoL is needed.