Atherosclerosis Risk Increased When Skipping Breakfast

HealthDay News — Habitual skipping of breakfast is associated with increased likelihood of atherosclerosis independent of traditional and dietary cardiovascular (CV) risk factors, according to a study published online in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Irina Uzhova, from the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III in Spain, and colleagues examined the correlation between breakfast patterns and CV risk factors in a prospective cohort of asymptomatic adults aged 40 to 54 years of age within the Progression of Early Subclinical Atherosclerosis study. Data on lifestyle and multivascular imaging and clinical covariates were obtained for 4052 participants.

Three breakfast consumption patterns were studied: high-energy, which contributed >20% of total daily energy intake; low-energy, which contributed 5% to 20% of total daily energy intake; and skipping breakfast, which contributed <5% of total daily energy intake (27%, 70%, and 3% of the population, respectively).

The researchers found that compared with high-energy breakfast, habitual skipping of breakfast correlated with a higher prevalence of noncoronary and generalized atherosclerosis (odds ratios 1.55; 95% CI, .97 to 2.46] and 2.57 [95% CI, 1.54 to 4.31], respectively) independent of the presence of traditional and dietary CV risk factors.

“Skipping breakfast is associated with an increased odds of prevalent noncoronary and generalized atherosclerosis independently of the presence of conventional CV risk factors,” the authors write.

Two authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

Reference

Uzhova I, Fuster V, Fernández-Ortiz A, et al. The importance of breakfast in atherosclerosis disease. JACC. 2017;70(15);1833-1842.