Skipping breakfast and physical fitness among school-aged adolescents

This study explored the relationship between skipping breakfast and physical fitness in a group of school-aged adolescents in China. This cross-sectional study from the Chinese National Surveillance on Students' Constitution and Health (CNSSCH) survey in Ningbo, China, used a standardized questionnaire to assess the frequency of breakfast consumption. Physical fitness was measured through standing long jump, 50-m sprint, 1,000 (or 800)-m run, and vital capacity tests. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between the frequency of breakfast consumption and physical fitness. Our study included a total of 1,849 school-aged adolescents (aged 15.53±1.80 years). Among boys, non-breakfast-skippers had good scores for 50-m sprints, 1,000-m run, and vital capacity tests when compared with breakfast skippers (all p