Breakfast consumption with and without vitamin-mineral supplement use favorably impacts daily nutrient intake of ninth-grade students

Purpose: To assess the contribution of breakfast consumption (with and with out dietary supplement intake) on total daily nutrient intake of ninth-grad e students. Methods: Twenty-four-hour recall of dietary intake was collected from a ran dom sample of 711 ninth-grade students attending 12 Archdiocesan high schoo ls in New Orleans, Louisiana. Analysis of variance techniques, Pearson's Ch i-square statistic, and Breznahn-Shapiro method with Scheffe probabilities were used to analyze nutrient intake data, dietary adequacy, and nonorthogo nal comparisons, respectively. Results: Nineteen percent of 15-year-olds skipped breakfast, with more fema les skipping breakfast than males (23% vs. 14%, respectively). Thirty-six p ercent of nonwhite females versus 20% white females skipped breakfast. Elev en percent of subjects took some type of dietary supplement, most commonly a multivitamin and mineral supplement. Among those who ate breakfast, avera ge energy intake from breakfast was 437 kcal. Percentage of total daily ene rgy intake was higher from fats and lower from carbohydrates for adolescent s who skipped breakfast, compared with adolescents who consumed breakfast. The percentage of subjects consuming at least two-thirds of the Recommended Dietary Allowance was significantly lower among adolescents skipping break fast than those consuming breakfast. Conclusion: Regardless of supplement use, breakfast consumption makes an im portant nutritional contribution to total daily intake of ninth-grade stude nts. Encouraging breakfast consumption and healthful breakfast choices is a n important step toward improving the nutritional quality of diets of this age group. (C) Society for Adolescent Medicine, 2000.