Meta-Analysis of Relation of Skipping Breakfast With Heart Disease

To determine whether skipping breakfast is associated with heart disease, the first meta-analysis of currently available epidemiological studies was performed. To identify case-control, cross-sectional, longitudinal, or cohort studies investigating the association of skipping breakfast with prevalence, incidence, or mortality of heart disease in adults, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched through April 2019. Adjusted (if unavailable, unadjusted) hazard ratios (HRs) or odds ratios (ORs) with their confidence interval (CIs) of prevalence, incidence, or mortality for skipping breakfast were extracted from each study. Study-specific estimates were combined using inverse variance-weighted averages of logarithmic HRs/ORs in the random-effects model. Eight eligible studies with a total of 284,484 participants were identified and included in the present meta-analysis. The primary meta-analysis combining HRs for Q1 (first quartile, most skipping breakfast) versus Q4 (fourth quartile, least skipping breakfast) from 3 studies together with other HRs/ORs demonstrated that skipping breakfast was associated with the significantly increased risk of heart disease (pooled HR/OR 1.24; 95% CI 1.09 to 1.40; p = 0.001). In sensitivity analyses combining HRs for Q2 (second quartile, second most skipping breakfast) versus Q4 or HRs for Q3 (third quartile, second least skipping breakfast) versus Q4 from 3 studies together with other HRs/ORs, the association of skipping breakfast with the increased risk of heart disease in the primary meta-analysis was confirmed. In conclusion, skipping breakfast is associated with the increased risk of heart disease.