Factors of skipping breakfast and association between skipping breakfast and academic achievement of nursing students

Background: Breakfast eating is related with good outcomes in terms of health. Skipping of breakfast is usually found in adolescents, but research findings on the effects of breakfast skipping on academic performance are scarce. The current study investigated the relation between breakfast skipping and academic performance of nursing students. Aims & Objective: To identify the factors associated with breakfast skipping and assess the academic achievement and to find association between breakfast skipping and academic performance Materials and Method: Cross-sectional survey was done among 527 nursing students. Demographic data of the subjects, and data related to factors for skipping breakfast was collected. Sessional grades of two exams were collected. Immediate visual memory and focus test was conducted via tool designed by researchers. Results: The results revealed, majority of the students 215 (40.7%) lack of time was the major reason to skip breakfast. Most of the 522 (99.1%) students scored good in the immediate visual memory (IMV) test and 500 (94.9 %) scored well in the focus test. No significant association (χ² (3) = 1.902, p = 0.595) was found between breakfast skipping and academic performance. Conclusion: Breakfast is generally accepted to be the most important meal of the day and students should eat breakfast regularly especially when they are going to hospitals. As per the data findings, no association was found between skipping of breakfast and academic achievements. Thus, the study indicates that breakfast skipping does not affect academic achievement but in a longer run it might affect the cognitive levels of students if regularly skipped.