Abstract

Background: Breakfast is a key part of a healthy diet, associated with a lower BMI and higher academic performance. This work aims to analyze the association between breakfast consumption and physical activity, tobacco consumption, sleep quality and body mass index in Chilean university students. Methods: Multicenter, cross-sectional study, non-probability sample. Each participant was asked how often they eat breakfast. In addition, the IPAQ physical activity questionnaire, Pittsburgh sleep survey, smoking habits, and anthropometric evaluation were applied. Results: 1,454 students, 77.9% women. 44% of the students indicate having breakfast every day, of which women (46%) outnumber men (36%) (p<0.001). When comparing by nutritional status, students with BMI> 25 consume the least breakfast p <0.05. When comparing by type of career, those in health careers eat breakfast daily more frequently than the others (p <0.001), in addition, the subjects who have the smoking habit eat breakfast less frequently than those who do not smoke (p <0, 01). The frequency of breakfast consumption is associated with better sleep quality (p <0.05). Finally, no statistically significant relationship was obtained between the frequency of breakfast and physical activity. Conclusions: In university students, eating breakfast is associated with the female sex, normal nutritional status, health careers, absence of smoking and better sleep, but without any association with physical activity.