Association between breakfast consumption, breakfast quality, mental health and quality of life in Turkish adolescents: A high school-based cross-sectional study

This study aimed to determine the frequency of breakfast consumption and breakfast quality among adolescents and to evaluate the relationships between breakfast consumption, breakfast quality, mental health, and health-related quality of life. This cross-sectional study included 449 students from 17 high schools between December 2022 and May 2023. A face-to-face questionnaire measuring the frequency of breakfast consumption, Mediterranean diet quality index (KIDMED), health-related quality of life (KIDSCREEN), and depression, anxiety and stress scales (DASS-21) was performed. Of the students, 54.1% skipped breakfast 2 or more times a week and 75.9% had poor breakfast quality. There were significant differences in breakfast quality classification according to the frequency of breakfast consumption (p = 0.003). Breakfast consumption ≤1 time/week or 2-5 times/week was associated with depression, anxiety and low adherence to the Mediterranean diet. No relationship was observed between breakfast quality and stress, depression or anxiety (p = 0.620, p = 0.586, p = 0.539, respectively) or between breakfast quality and the KIDSCREEN-27 subscales (p > 0.05). However, those eating poor-quality breakfasts had better results in physical wellbeing (p = 0.022), psychological wellbeing (p = 0.024), autonomy and parent relations (p = 0.017) than breakfast-skippers and also scored lower for depression, stress and anxiety (all p < 0.001). In conclusion, the frequency of breakfast consumption had a stronger association with reduced symptoms of stress, depression and anxiety, as well as improvements in all dimensions of health-related quality of life, compared to the quality of breakfast consumed. Given the association of breakfast consumption with mental health outcomes in adolescents, our findings are of great importance, especially to parents, clinicians and nutritional educators.