Association Between Breakfast Consumption and Suicidal Attempts in Adolescents

PURPOSE: It has been previously reported that skipping breakfast is positively associated with increased depression, anxiety, stress, and psychological distress. This study examined the effects of breakfast consumption on suicide attempts among adolescents. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The Korean Youth Risk Behavior Web-based Survey (KYRBWS) is an anonymous self-report survey conducted with middle- and high-school students to understand the health behavior of Korean adolescents. Variables related to suicide risk such as suicide attempts, breakfast frequency, depression, anxiety, and violence were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression analysis. The class selected as the sample class was surveyed for all students and the number of youths selected as the sample in 2020 was 57,925 students from 800 schools (400 middle schools and 400 high schools) in 17 cities and provinces nationwide. Among them, the dataset for this study was 54,948 completed adolescent health behavior surveys. RESULTS: Adolescents who attempted suicide often skipped breakfast and had high stress levels. In the regression analysis, those who ate breakfast less than once a week had a stronger association with suicide attempts than the group of six or seven times a week (OR = 2.186; 95% CI = 1.873–2.552). In the group of feeling sadness or hopeless for more than two weeks in the past year, those who ate breakfast zero or once a week (OR = 1.269; 95% CI = 1.044–1.542), or two or three times (OR = 1.300; 95% CI = 1.043–1.619), showed a stronger correlation with suicide attempts than the group of six or seven times a week. CONCLUSION: Breakfast can affect adolescents’ emotions. Helping adolescents regularly eat breakfasts might be a suicide prevention strategy.