Abstract

Background Skipping breakfast is common among U.S. adults. Limited evidence suggests that skipping breakfast is associated with atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease.

Objectives The authors sought to examine the association of skipping breakfast with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.

Methods This is a prospective cohort study of a nationally representative sample of 6,550 adults 40 to 75 years of age who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III 1988 to 1994. Frequency of breakfast eating was reported during an in-house interview. Death and underlying causes of death were ascertained by linkage to death records through December 31, 2011. The associations between breakfast consumption frequency and cardiovascular and all-cause mortality were investigated by using weighted Cox proportional hazards regression models.

Results Among the 6,550 participants (mean age 53.2 years; 48.0% male) in this study, 5.1% never consumed breakfast, 10.9% rarely consumed breakfast, 25.0% consumed breakfast some days, and 59.0% consumed breakfast every day. During 112,148 person-years of follow-up, 2,318 deaths occurred including 619 deaths from cardiovascular disease. After adjustment for age, sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, dietary and lifestyle factors, body mass index, and cardiovascular risk factors, participants who never consumed breakfast compared with those consuming breakfast everyday had hazard ratios of 1.87 (95% confidence interval: 1.14 to 3.04) for cardiovascular mortality and 1.19 (95% confidence interval: 0.99 to 1.42) for all-cause mortality.

Conclusions In a nationally representative cohort with 17 to 23 years of follow-up, skipping breakfast was associated with a significantly increased risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease. Our study supports the benefits of eating breakfast in promoting cardiovascular health.

This study indicates skipping breakfast increases the chance of death

from heart attacks and strokes, more noticeably from strokes.

One wonders about why, the mechanism, the pathophysiology behind it.

We know for sure that our brain needs glucose most urgently among all organs 

all the time and cannot function  long without it, and our heart is the next to brain

in demanding glucose most urgently.

We also know very well hypoglycemia is bad for heart patients and can create

arrhythmia among other things.

So in a way the results of this study are not entirely surprising in that

skipping breakfast may well promote or prolong low blood sugar, which

may have resulted in the outcome.