Abstract
BACKGROUND: Studies have documented a positive relationship between regular breakfast consumption and cognitive outcomes in youth. However, most of these studies have emphasized specific measures of cognition rather than cognitive performance as a broad construct (e.g., IQ test scores) and have been limited to Western samples of school-age children and adolescents. This study aims to extend the literature on breakfast consumption and cognition by examining these constructs in a sample of Chinese kindergarten-age children. METHODS: This cross-sectional study consisted of a sample of 1269 children (697 boys and 572 girls) aged 6 years from the Chinese city of Jintan. Cognition was assessed with the Chinese version of the Wechsler preschool and primary scale of intelligence-revised. Breakfast habits were assessed through parental questionnaire. Analyses of variance and linear regression models were used to analyze the association between breakfast habits and IQ. Socioeconomic and parental psychosocial variables related to intelligence were controlled for. RESULTS: Findings showed that children who regularly have breakfast on a near-daily basis had significantly higher full scale, verbal, and performance IQ test scores (all p<0.001) compared to children who "sometimes" have breakfast. This relationship persisted for VIQ (verbal IQ) and FIQ (full IQ) even after adjusting for gender, current living location, parental education, parental occupation, and primary child caregiver. CONCLUSION: Findings may reflect nutritional as well as social benefits of regular breakfast consumption on cognition, and regular breakfast consumption should be encouraged among young children.