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Updated: Nov 26, 2025

Breakfast Habits among Schoolchildren in the City of Uruguaiana, Brazil
Published on: July 29, 2020
Breakfast consumption and mental health: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies
Hoda Zahedi1, Shirin Djalalinia2,3, Omid Sadeghi4,5
1Hematopoietic Stem Cell Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Objective:
Several studies have been conducted on the relationship between breakfast consumption and mental health with conflicting results. Therefore, the present systematic review and meta-analysis was undertaken to summarize evidences on the association between skipping breakfast and mental health.
Methods:
We searched online databases for all related papers through the comprehensive international data bases of Institute of PubMed/ MEDLINE, ISI/WOS and Scopus up to December 2019, using relevant keywords. Overall, 14 studies were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis.
Results:
The total sample size of all selected studies was 399,550 individuals with age range of 6 to ≥65 years old. We found a significant positive association between skipping breakfast and Odds Ratio (OR) of depression (pooled OR: 1.39; 95% CI: 1.34-1.44), stress (pooled OR: 1.23; 95% CI: 1.04-1.43) and psychological distress (pooled OR: 1.55; 95% CI: 1.47-1.62). In contrast, there was no significant association between skipping breakfast and anxiety in all age cohort (pooled OR: 1.31; 95% CI: 0.97-1.65). However, subgroup analysis based on age stratification showed that there was a significant positive association between skipping breakfast and anxiety in adolescences (pooled OR: 1.51; 95% CI: 1.25-1.77).
Conclusion:
In conclusion, skipping breakfast was positively associated with odds of depression, stress and psychological distress in all age groups and anxiety in adolescence, underlining impact of breakfast on mental health.
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