Relationship between attendance at breakfast and school achievement among nursing students

This survey by correlation study with partial qualitative design examined the effect of attendance at breakfast with school achievement in 710 first-year nursing students at a nursing institute in Northern Taiwan. Dietary attendance cards were scanned by computer before each meal. Since the school is located at a geographically isolated suburban area, this program was compulsory for all first-year nursing students and was included in the tuition fee. Comparison of attendance at breakfast over the four-month semester (from September 1999 to January 2000) and final semester class ranking showed a lower attending rate of breakfast (attendance at breakfast equal to or under 60% of mean times in a 4-month semester) was significantly associated with lower scores on tests in six individual classes and a class rank; while a higher frequency of breakfast attendance (attendance at breakfast equal to or over 85% of mean times in a 4-month semester) was significantly associated with higher scores on tests in six individual classes and a higher class rank (p <.001). To determine the relationships between frequency of attending breakfast and practicing health promotion behaviors, the Chinese Health Promoting Scale was used. We also found that those who skipped breakfast frequently had more negative health promotion behaviors than those who attended breakfast more regularly (p <.001). These results indicate that school achievement is negatively affected when nursing students omit breakfast. The research outcome supports the importance of breakfast in school achievement.