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Abstract The objective of the study was to find out the breakfast eating habits and the effects of these habits on their health among doctors of Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Chakwal working in public and private hospitals. For the current study it was hypothesized that Regular breakfast eating is associated with lower BMI". 351 Health professionals (Doctors) working in Health institutions or doing private practice in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Chakwal were included in the study over six months from April 2011 till August 2011. All relevant information about diet, along with height (using stadeometer, or measuring tape), weight (by bathroom weight scale) was recorded. With the help of height and weight, BMI was calculated. Based on BMI, nutritional status of the subjects was assessed.
Descriptive analysis showed that mean height was 163.428.82 cm with a range of 147.5 to 187.5 cm and the mean weight was 6512.1 kg with a range of 38 kg to 103 kg. BMI ranged from 14.47 to 40.57, with a mean BMI of 24.223.55. 202 (57.5%) doctors were regular breakfast eaters (RBE) and 149 (42.5%) were breakfast skippers. The mean BMI of regular breakfast eaters was 23.113.56 kg and of breakfast skippers was 25.722.9 kg (p = 0.00). It was concluded that the regular breakfast eating is associated with lower BMI.
Key Words: BMI, Breakfast eating habits, doctors, lifestyle.
INTRODUCTION In Pakistan due to the hectic routine of doctors and heavy workload of patients very less time is left for doctors to address their personal needs. Doctors specifically don't give importance to breakfast in time of rush in the morning and day break but it adversely affect their fitness and well-being as well as BMI. Regarding their nutritional status and lifestyles, authentic data is not available. For that reason this study will offer base line information/data to doctors to advance their knowledge and understanding about the significance of breakfast. Whereas current research offers data of many factors that are related with skipping breakfast and may be predictive of it, furthermore, research on the adult population has been a particularly neglected area of investigation.
METHODOLOGY The objective of the study was to find out the breakfast eating habits among health professionals of Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Chakwal working in public and private...