Published: 30 July 2024 at 07:00
Regularity of morning meal strongly associated with life satisfaction – new study
Children who frequently miss breakfast have lower life satisfaction than those who regularly eat a morning meal, according to a study of nearly 150,000 young people across the world.
The research, published in the BMC Nutrition Journal, was led by Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and Universidad de las Americas, and shows a nearly linear relationship between higher frequency of eating breakfast and greater life satisfaction in children and adolescents aged between 10 and 17 years old across 42 countries including Britain.
The highest life satisfaction score was identified in participants who had breakfast daily, whereas the lowest life satisfaction score was observed in children who never had breakfast.
Among the 42 countries studies, children who ate breakfast every day in Portugal had the highest levels of life satisfaction. In contrast, the lowest life satisfaction scores were found in children from Romania who never ate breakfast, indicating potential socio-economic factors also influencing the results.
Amongst children who ate breakfast every day, children in England had the fifth lowest mean life satisfaction scores, behind only Romania, Hungary, Germany and Austria.
Senior author Lee Smith, Professor of Public Health at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said:
The full, open access paper can be read here.