No energy to burn: Breakfast consumption and daily physical activity in Danish children
Involverte ansattePage AS,
Andersen LB, Wedderkopp N, Froberg K, Cooper AR.
In press: Am J Prev Med.
BeskrivelseStudy objective: To investigate the physical activity levels and pattern of children who regularly eat breakfast compared to those who do not.
Cross sectional study of schools in Odense. Children wore an accelerometer recording minute-by-minute physical activity for a continuous period of at least four days and completed questions describing physical activity habits.
Total volume of physical activity and hourly physical activity patterns were estimated and groups of children compared according to frequency of breakfast consumption.
Accelerometers were worn whilst participants carried out normal activities of everyday living. 413 nine-year old Danish children selected for participation in the European Youth Heart Study and who were requested to wear an accelerometer.
Three hundred and fifty-two children completed all measurements. Children who ate breakfast most days were significantly more physically active (accelerometer counts per minute) than those who ate breakfast only once or twice a week for both weekdays (589 (222) vs. 450(204), p=0.004) and weekends (571 (272) vs. 393 (184), p=0.016) accelerometer counts per hour).
Analysis by gender demonstrated that significant differences were seen for girls only. BMI was significantly greater for those who ate breakfast less frequently for girls but not boys.
Conclusions: In primary school aged girls greater frequency of breakfast consumption was related to lower levels of BMI and higher levels of physical activity. This was not the case for boys.