Abstract
Background: Balanced and healthy nutrition is needed in order to avert adverse effects of poor eating practices. Children and adults often miss breakfast due to many reasons including lack of time. Evidence indicates that breakfast consumption is more beneficial than skipping breakfast following a long overnight fast. Its effect on cognitive function is still under debate. Our aim was to conduct a preliminary study to investigate breakfast habits and its effect of certain aspects of cognition in medical students in a university in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Methods: This study was a descriptive cross-sectional study. We assessed breakfast eating practices of final year medical students. Self-administered and questionnaire and trail making test for visual attention, task switching, speed of processing, and executive functioning were used as study instruments. Results and Conclusions: We recruited 121 clinical students. Majority (55.4%) skipped breakfast at least one or more days per week. Most consumed rice or wheat flour based meals and snacks and only a minority consumed cereals. We did not find any significant difference in trail making test between the two groups of students who skipped and consumed breakfast. A more comprehensive study exploring this topic is recommended.
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