Skipping Breakfast Flags Cardiovascular Risk

By Joe Elia

Edited by David G. Fairchild, MD, MPH, and Jaye Elizabeth Hefner, MD

Skipping breakfast habitually has a strong association with cardiovascular risk, according to a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Some 6500 participants in the 1988–1994 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys were interviewed about their breakfast habits. Participants ranged in age from 40 to 75. During a median 19 years' follow-up, 9.5% of the cohort died from cardiovascular disease. After multivariable adjustment, those who reported never eating breakfast had a hazard ratio for cardiovascular mortality of 1.9 compared with those who had breakfast every day. The association was particularly strong for stroke-related death.

Editorialists write that it's unclear whether the association is causal, but "what is clear is that a pattern of skipping breakfast identifies a population at risk."