Breakfast Skipping in Female College Students Is a Potential and Preventable Predictor of Gynecologic Disorders at Health Service Centers.

Tomoko Fujiwara,Yumi Adachi,Yoshiko Maida,Hiroshi Fujiwara,Takashi Iizuka,Hiroaki Yoshikawa,Masanori Ono,Naomi Sekizuka-Kagami

doi:10.3390/diagnostics10070476

Tomoko Fujiwara, Yumi Adachi + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics10070476

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Journal: Diagnostics	Publication Date: Jul 13, 2020
Citations: 12	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Kyoto Notre Dame University, Kanazawa University

Abstract

Inadequate dietary habits in youth are known to increase the risk of onset of various diseases in adulthood. Previously, we found that female college students who skipped breakfast had higher incidences of dysmenorrhea, suggesting that breakfast skipping interferes with ovarian and uterine functions. Since dietary habits can be managed by education, it is preferable to establish a convenient screening system for meal skipping that is associated with dysmenorrhea as part of routine services of health service centers. In this study, we recruited 3172 female students aged from 18 to 25 at Kanazawa University and carried out an annual survey of the status of students’ health and lifestyle in 2019, by a questionnaire. We obtained complete responses from 3110 students and analyzed the relationship between dietary habits, such as meal skipping and history of dieting, and menstrual disorders, such as troubles or worries with menstruation, menstrual irregularity, menstrual pain, and use of oral contraceptives. The incidence of troubles or worries with menstruation was significantly higher in those with breakfast skipping (p < 0.05) and a history of dieting (p < 0.001). This survey successfully confirmed the positive relationship between breakfast skipping and menstrual pain (p < 0.001), indicating that this simple screening test is suitable for picking up breakfast skippers who are more prone to gynecologic disorders. In conclusions, since dysmenorrhea is one of the important clinical signs, breakfast skipping may become an effective marker to predict the subsequent onset of gynecological diseases at health service centers. Considering educational correction of meal skipping, breakfast skipping is a potential and preventable predictor that will contribute to managing menstrual disorders from a preventive standpoint in the future.

Highlights

Poor dietary behaviors in youth were reported to increase the risk of onset of lifestyle diseases in adulthood. [1]
Since the incidence of dysmenorrhea is high in female college students with a history of dieting, we considered that inadequate dietary habits in adolescence induce the subsequent development of organic gynecologic diseases [14], and named this concept “adolescent dietary habit-induced obstetric and gynecologic disease (ADHOGD)” [15]
This study showed that the incidence of troubles or worries with menstruation was significantly higher in those with breakfast skipping and a history of dieting

Summary

Introduction

Poor dietary behaviors in youth were reported to increase the risk of onset of lifestyle diseases in adulthood. [1]. Poor dietary behaviors in youth were reported to increase the risk of onset of lifestyle diseases in adulthood. Rates of meal-skipping and dieting were reported to be high during young adulthood [3,5]. It is widely accepted that excess dieting induces gynecological disorders, such as dysmenorrhea, irregular menstruation, and hypothalamic amenorrhea [6,7,8,9]. Recent studies proposed that endometriosis, which is frequently manifested by dysmenorrhea, latently develops as a consequence of modern dietary lifestyles [10], suggesting that gynecological disorders are closely related to dietary habits [11]

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