Breakfast Missing Pattern of Pre-Adolescent Primary School Children Kisumu County, Kenya.

Abstract

Breakfast is an important meal of a day, especially to children and pre-adolescents. However, pre- adolescents seem to have the highest prevalence of missing breakfast despite its importance to their cognitive performance, growth and development. There is a paucity of literature in Africa regarding the prevalence of missing breakfast among school going children particularly in Kenya. The breakfast missing pattern among pre-adolescents are not well understood. Kisumu Central Sub-county was purposively picked for the study because it is an urban set-up: a factor that makes most households be able to afford at least three meals per day. This study thus assessed the missing breakfast pattern among school children in Kisumu Central Sub-County. A cross- sectional study design was adopted where pre-adolescents were recruited for this study. Two-stage cluster sampling technique was adopted for the selection of the sample 422 pre-adolescents from the targeted population of 14,473 pre-adolescents of school going children. Data was collected using a questionnaire comprising missing breakfast pattern. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics to determine the breakfast missing pattern. The study established that 179 (44.0%) of pre-adolescents missed breakfast on the survey day, 154 (38.0%) of the respondents often missed breakfast, and 221 (54.3%) of the pupils reported to have missed breakfast the previous week. This study generated insight which will allow for appropriate interventions programs to be designed aimed at bettering breakfast consumption pattern among pre-adolescents attending schools