Breakfast Characteristics and Its Association with Daily Micronutrients Intake in Children and Adolescents–A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Breakfast is an important source of key nutrients in the diet. For this reason, the aim of this review was to investigate the associations between breakfast consumption and daily micronutrients intake in both children and adolescents (aged 2–18 years). A peer-reviewed systematic search was conducted in three datasets (PubMed, Scopus and Cochrane Library) in February 2020 in English and Spanish. Two independent reviewers evaluated 3188 studies considering the AXIS critical appraisal and PRISMA methodologies. Meta-analysis was carried out comparing results according to type of breakfast consumed (Ready to eat cereals (RTEC) breakfast or other types of breakfast) and breakfast skipping. Thirty-three articles were included in the systematic review (SR) and 7 in the meta-analysis. In the SR, we observed that those children and adolescents who usually consume RTEC at breakfast had a higher consumption of B-vitamins than those not consuming RTEC at breakfast. Breakfast consumers had a higher mineral intake (iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and iodine) than breakfast skippers. In the Meta-Analysis, RTEC consumers had significantly higher vitamin C intake than breakfast skippers (Standard Mean Difference (SMD), −4.12; 95% confidence intervals (CI): −5.09, −3.16). Furthermore, those children who usually consume breakfast had significantly higher daily intake of calcium than breakfast skippers (SMD, −7.03; 95%CI: −9.02, −5.04). Our review proposes that breakfast consumption seems to be associated with higher daily micronutrients intake than breakfast skippers.