RESULTS:
Relative to those with infrequent breakfast consumption (0-3 days/week), participants who reported eating breakfast daily gained 1.9 kg less weight over 18 years (P=0.001). In a Cox regression analysis, there was a stepwise decrease in risk across conditions in frequent breakfastconsumers (4-6 days/week) and daily consumers. The results for incidence of abdominal obesity, obesity, metabolic syndrome, and hypertension remained significant after adjustment for baseline measures of adiposity (waist circumference or BMI) in daily breakfast consumers. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for daily breakfast consumption were as follows: abdominal obesity HR 0.78 (95% CI 0.66-0.91), obesity 0.80 (0.67-0.96), metabolic syndrome 0.82 (0.69-0.98), and hypertension 0.84 (0.72-0.99). For type 2 diabetes, the corresponding estimate was 0.81 (0.63-1.05), with a significant stepwise inverse association in black men and white men and women but no association in black women. There was no evidence of differential results for high versus low overall dietary quality.