title: Regular breakfast consumption associated with high intelligence quotient: Myth or Reality?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To find the frequency of regular breakfast consumption among Pakistani teenagers while the other objective was to find out the association between breakfast consumers (BC) and intelligence quotient (IQ).
  
  
  METHODS
  This comparative cross sectional study was conducted on 102 students of a Public School Rawalpindi from August 2013 to January 2014. Participants were categorised into two groups i.e. regular breakfast consumers (RBC) and irregular breakfast consumers (IBC) according to their breakfast habits. A standardized questionnaire of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Childrenwas used for IQ assessment. Data was then entered and analysed in SPSS version 20.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Out of the 102 individuals with mean age 17.17 ± 0.631, 58(56.9%) were females and 44 (43.1%) were males. There were 63 (61.8%) RBC while 39 (38.2%) were IBC. Among RBC there were 7 (6.9%) in challenged, 5 (4.9%) were below average, 33 (32.4%) in average group, 14(13.7%) in above average and 4 (3.9%) in gifted group. While among IBC, there was 1 (1%) among the severely challenged, 3 (2.9%) in challenged, 8 (7.8%) in below average, 22 (21.6%) in average group, 4 (3.9%) in above average and 1 (1%) in gifted group. There was no significant association found between breakfast intake and IQ level among students (p=0.98).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  More than half of the students were having regular breakfast. There was no significant association found among breakfast consumers and IQ. However the IQ score was more among RBC as compared to IBC.
authors.affiliation: Dr. Aliya Hisam, MBBS, MPH. Assistant Professor, National University of Science & Technology (NUST), Community Medicine Department, Army Medical College (AMC), Abid Majeed Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Aliya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hisam
authors.affiliation: Mahmood Ur Rahman, MBBS, DPH, MPH, MSc, FCPS. Professor and Head of Community Medicine Department, Community Medicine Department, Army Medical College (AMC), Abid Majeed Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Mahmood Ur
authors.initials: MU
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.affiliation: Syed Fawad Mashhadi, MBBS, MPH, MPhil, MCPS. Assistant Professor, Community Medicine Department, Army Medical College (AMC), Abid Majeed Road, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Syed Fawad
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Mashhadi
authors.affiliation: Azfar Bilal, House Officers, Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Azfar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bilal
authors.affiliation: Tayyeba Anam, House Officers, Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Tayyeba
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Anam
keywords: Breakfast; Intelligence; Students