Breakfast Eating Habits and Lifestyle Behaviors among Saudi Primary School Children Attending Public Versus Private Schools.

Laura Jabri,Hazzaa M Al-Hazzaa,Amani A Al-Rasheedi,Rayan A Alsulaimani

doi:10.3390/children8020134

Laura Jabri, Hazzaa M Al-Hazzaa + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/children8020134

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Abstract

We investigated breakfast eating habits and lifestyle behaviors among Saudi school children attending public versus private schools. A random sample of 1149 children (girls: 54.4%) from public and private schools was selected from elementary schools using the multistage stratified cluster method. Measurements included body weight, height, body mass index (BMI), and self-reported questionnaires filled by the child’s parents. There was no significant (p = 0.44) difference in the prevalence of breakfast intake between children attending public (20.6%) versus private (19.4%) schools. However, there was a gender by school type interactions in breakfast intake frequency, as boys in private but not in public schools had significantly (p = 0.006) higher (26.3%) daily breakfast intake than girls (13.3%). Over 56% of the children ate and drank from the school canteen, and impacting factors on children’s choices were children’s desire, food taste, and parental influence. More parents of children in private (12.1%) than in public (6.9%) schools were satisfied with the food in the school canteen. Younger age (aOR = 0.889, 95% CI = 0.815–0.970, p = 0.008), higher father education (aOR = 1.380, 95% CI = 1.130–1.686, p = 0.002), family income (aOR = 1.227, 95% CI = 1.005–1.498, p = 0.044), and insufficient sleep duration (aOR = 0.740, 95% CI = 0.553–0.990, p = 0.042) were significantly associated with being in a private school. Furthermore, no significant differences, when adjusted for socio-demographic factors, appeared in breakfast intake or overweight/obesity relative to school type. Interventions to improve daily breakfast consumption and lifestyle behaviors of Saudi children are warranted.

Highlights

Habitual breakfast consumption contributes substantially to a child’s physical health and wellbeing by improving nutrient intake and overall dietary quality [1,2,3,4]
There were no differences in the proportions of daily breakfast intake between children in public (20.6%) and private (19.6%) schools
There was no overall difference in the prevalence of daily breakfast intake relative to gender in public schools, boys (26.3%) in private schools showed higher (p = 0.006) daily breakfast intake than girls (13.3%)

Summary

Introduction

Habitual breakfast consumption contributes substantially to a child’s physical health and wellbeing by improving nutrient intake and overall dietary quality [1,2,3,4]. A more balanced macronutrient distribution including higher fiber and lower saturated fat intake was found among Canadian children and adolescents who were breakfast consumers [5]. Breakfast skipping is associated with several negative health effects and worse anthropometrics including higher body mass index (BMI) z-scores, waist circumferences, and overweight/obesity prevalence among children and adolescents [2,7,8]. Breakfast skipping was shown to be associated with various suboptimal lifestyle behaviors such as engaging in less physical activity and more screen time, having less nocturnal sleep time and poorer dietary habits overall [7,10,11,12,13]

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