The Association between Breakfast Skipping and the Risk of Obesity, Diabetes, Hypertension, or Dyslipidemia—A Meta-analysis from 44 Trials Including 65,233 Cases and 381,051 Controls

Objective: Many epidemiologic studies have explored the relationship between breakfast skipping and risk of chronic diseases. But the conclusions are inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to assess the association between breakfast skipping and risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia. Research Design and Methods: A literature search was performed in Pubmed, Web of science and Embase for relevant articles update to November 2017. Pooled odds risks(ORs) with 95% CI were used as a measure to calculate the differences for dichotomous data (outcome events: obesity, diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia). Results: A total of 44 papers including 65233 cases and 381051 controls were included in the present meta-analysis. Skipping breakfast compared to eating breakfast, the risk of obesity increased significantly, the OR was 1.54 (1.39,1.71). In addition, people who skip breakfast had increased risk of hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia, the OR of hypertension was 1.07(1.06, 1.07);the OR of diabetes was 1.16 (1.05, 1.29); the OR of elevated triglyceride was 1.22 (0.99,1.49); the OR of elevated cholesterol was 1.15 (1.07,1.22). Subgroup analysis shows that the OR of obesity was 1.56 (1.26,1.93) in Asia and 1.40 (1.15,1.71) in Europe. Besides, the OR of diabetes was 1.13 (0.98,1.29]) in Asia and 1.56 (1.04,2.34) in Europe. And the OR of hypertension was 1.07 (1.07,1.08) in Asia and 1.17 (0.71,1.92) in Europe.There was no significant publication bias was found in the studies identified by both Begg’s test and Egger’s test. Conclusion: This meta-analysis confirmed that breakfast skipping positively increases the risk of obesity, diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidemia. In particular, it increases the risk of obesity. In Asia, the risk of obesity is more pronounced. However, Europeans who skip breakfast have a greater risk of diabetes and hypertension. Disclosure X.M. Ma: None. Y. Xu: None.