Determination of Breakfast Habits of Health School Students and the Factors Affecting Them: Bitlis Eren University Example

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to determine the breakfast habits of Health School students and the factors affecting them. The research was conducted with 120 students representing Bitlis Eren University Health School students. Questionnaire form was used as data collection tool. As a result of the study, it was observed that 35.8% of the students had a regular breakfast every day, and 3.3% did not have breakfast. It was determined that 48.3% of the students who skipped breakfast skipped because of waking up late, 24.2% due to lack of appetite in the mornings, 10% because of not caring, 5% because of dislike to eat breakfast, 2.5% for economic insufficiency, and 2.5% for fear of gaining weight. They reported that the most common situations encountered by students when they did not eat breakfast were the feeling of hunger, weakness, fatigue, and decreased attention. The majority of the students think that breakfast enables a fresh start to the day, breakfast is the most important meal of the day and breakfast helps regulate blood sugar. It was observed that students whose fathers were public employees skip breakfast more (p <0.001). As the monthly income of the students' family increased, the rate of skipping breakfast increased (p <0.05). The effect of the smoking status on skipping breakfast were found to be significant (p <0.01).