NUTRITION KNOWLEDGE AND BREAKFAST HABITS OF A GROUP OF ADOLESCENTS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Background and objectives: Breakfast is often regarded as the most important meal of the day. Breakfast skipping and consumption of unhealthy food may lead to micro-nutrient deficiencies and poor nutritional status. Studies have shown that children and adolescents who habitually skip breakfast are at higher risk for skipping other meals, snacking, being less physically active and being overweight and obese. The purpose of this study was to describe nutrition knowledge and breakfast habits of a group of adolescents in Anambra State, Nigeria. Methods: A validated questionnaire was administered to 259 adolescents (comprising 184 males and 75 females) randomly selected from 6 public secondary schools in the state to obtain information on nutrition knowledge, breakfast eating habits, consumption patterns, content of breakfast. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages) and Chi square analysis were performed using SPSS version 20. Results: The mean age of the adolescents was 12.1(± 5.3) years. The percentage that reported eating breakfast daily was 69% and this was significantly higher in males (p0.05). Similarly, nutrition knowledge did not differ significantly between breakfast eaters and skippers (p>0.05). Conclusions: This study showed that nutrition knowledge was generally on the average and breakfast was consumed by about two thirds of the adolescents daily. It is suggested that the nutrient content of breakfast foods consumed be further assessed in order to ascertain the quality.