Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 29, 2025
Breakfast Habits among Schoolchildren in the City of Uruguaiana, Brazil
Published on: July 29, 2020
A Preliminary Study on Acute Otitis Media in Spanish Children with Late Dinner Habits
Ruth Díez1,2, Sergio Verd3,4, Jaume Ponce-Taylor5
1Department of Pediatrics, Son Espases University Hospital, 07120 Palma de Mallorca, Spain.
Abstract:
The timing of caloric intake plays an important role in the long-term process that leads to communicable diseases. The primary objective of this study was to analyse whether children who ate dinner early were at lower risks of acute respiratory infections than children who ate dinner late during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods:
This cross-sectional study was conducted from July to December 2020 on children attending Majorcan emergency services. Our survey on dinner time habits was carried out by using self-administered questionnaires.
Results:
A total of 669 children were included in this study. The median dinner time was 8:30 pm. Late dinner eaters accounted for a higher proportion of acute otitis media (7% vs. 3%; p = 0.028) than early dinner eaters. Other infectious diseases were not associated with dinner time habits.
Conclusions:
We make a preliminary estimate of the link between late dinner habits and acute otitis media in children. However, no conclusions about causality can be established due to the observational design of the study, and further research is needed in order to confirm the different issues raised by our initial exploration of an emerging research area.
