title: School Breakfast-Club Program Changes and Youth Eating Breakfast During the School Week in the COMPASS Study.
abstract: Despite the importance of breakfast consumption, breakfast skipping is common among Canadian youth. This study examines how changes to school-based breakfast programs are associated with breakfast-skipping behavior.
  
  
  
  Using school-level longitudinal data from Year 1 (Y1 : 2012-2013) and Year 2 (Y2 : 2013-2014) of the COMPASS study, quasi-experimental methods evaluated the impact over time that changes to school-based breakfast programs had on breakfast skipping or participating in school-based breakfast program.
  
  
  
  Between Y1 and Y2 , the school-level prevalence of breakfast skipping (54.5%-54.9%) and breakfast program participation (12.3%-13.6%) increased. Of the 43 participating schools, 5 implemented a new school breakfast program. Among the intervention schools, 1 school (School 4) observed a significant, and 1 school (School 3) observed a significant increase in the school-level prevalence of skipping breakfast; there was no significant change in the other 3 intervention schools.
  
  
  
  Despite the availability of free school breakfast programs, the majority of youth skipped breakfast at least once a school week. Owing to the variation in the types of programs implemented, additional evaluation evidence is necessary to determine which students benefited the most from these programs.
authors.affiliation: CIHR-PHAC Chair in Applied Public Health Research, School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave West, BMH 2321, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada. sleather@uwaterloo.ca.
authors.forename: Scott T
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Leatherdale
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave West, BMH 2321, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada. jstefanczyk@uwaterloo.ca.
authors.forename: Jennifer M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Stefanczyk
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave West, BMH 2321, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada. sharon.kirkpatrick@uwaterloo.ca.
authors.forename: Sharon I
authors.initials: SI
authors.lastname: Kirkpatrick
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D062408:Breakfast; D002170:Canada; D005260:Female; D005522:Food Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D012574:Schools / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*
keywords: breakfast program; evaluation; longitudinal; natural experiment; quasi-experimental; youth