Breakfast Consumption and Diet Quality of Teens in Southwestern Ontario

Nicolas Woods; Jamie A Seabrook; Jess Haines; Saverio Stranges; Leia Minaker; Colleen O'Connor; Sean Doherty; Jason Gilliland

doi:10.1016/j.cdnut.2022.100003

Breakfast Consumption and Diet Quality of Teens in Southwestern Ontario

Curr Dev Nutr. 2022 Dec 23;7(2):100003. doi: 10.1016/j.cdnut.2022.100003. eCollection 2023 Feb.

Authors

Nicolas Woods^{1

2

3}, Jamie A Seabrook^{2

3

4

5

6

7}, Jess Haines^{3

8}, Saverio Stranges^{2

3

6

9

10

11

12}, Leia Minaker^{3

13}, Colleen O'Connor^{3

4}, Sean Doherty^{3

14}, Jason Gilliland^{1

2

3

5

6

7

15}

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
² Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
³ Human Environments Analysis Laboratory, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁴ School of Food and Nutritional Sciences, Brescia University College, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁵ Children's Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Lawson Health Research Institute, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁷ Department of Paediatrics, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
⁸ Department of Family Relations and Applied Nutrition, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
⁹ Department of Family Medicine, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁰ Department of Medicine, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
¹¹ Department of Population Health, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Strassen, Luxembourg.
¹² Department of Precision Health, Luxembourg Institute of Health, Strassen, Luxembourg.
¹³ School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁴ Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
¹⁵ Department of Geography and Environment, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

Background: Breakfast skipping has previously been associated with worse diet quality among adolescents; the latter increases the risk of chronic disease. However, many studies do not consider diet quality as a function of calories, which is problematic as skippers tend to consume less energy than consumers. Additionally, due to the lack of one accepted definition of both breakfast skipping and diet quality, it is unclear how differences found may change when using varying definitions.

Objectives: We aimed to compare the Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015) scores and nutrient intakes of teen breakfast skippers and consumers in Southwestern Ontario, Canada.

Methods: Cross-sectional, baseline data were used from SmartAPPetite, an ongoing nutrition intervention study. Singular 24-h dietary recalls and sociodemographic data from 512 adolescents aged 13-19 y were used to compare HEI-2015 scores and nutrient intakes via multivariable linear regression.

Results: Previous day breakfast skippers had significantly lower HEI-2015 scores (-4.4; 95% CI: -8.4, -0.4) and significantly lower intakes of calories, saturated fat, and vitamin C, as well as significantly higher intake of sodium and total fat.

Conclusions: Previous day breakfast consumers had significantly higher diet quality scores and better nutrient intakes than breakfast skippers, although, on average, both had poor diet quality. Consequently, it is unlikely that simply advising teens to consume breakfast will result in meaningful change in diet quality, and more effort should be placed on promoting nutritious breakfasts.

Keywords: Healthy Eating Index; adolescent; breakfast; diet quality; diet recall; epidemiology; nutrient; nutrition; pediatrics; teen.