• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.46 no.11
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• pp.1397-1407
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• 2017

The aim of a school attendance policy (SAP) is to ensure breakfast time for school-aged adolescents. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of SAP on dietary behavior, particularly breakfast consumption, among adolescent middle school students (n=426) in the Ansan area of Gyeonggi-do. After implementation of the SAP, the response rates for eating breakfast every-day among boys (P>0.05) and girls (P<0.05) slightly increased by 44.6% and 35.8%, respectively, compared to before the SAP. Further, the degree of satisfaction with breakfast increased among both boys ('satisfied' and 'strongly satisfied'; 32.4% and 21.6%, respectively) (P<0.01) and girls ('satisfied' and 'strongly satisfied'; 32.8% and 14.2%, respectively) (P<0.001) compared to before the SAP. Moreover, boys (56.8%) and girls (53.9%) were aware that the SAP increased breakfast-eating frequency. Increases in deep sleep as a result of the SAP were high in both boys (39.2%) and girls (47.1%), and sleeping hours among boys (P<0.05) and girls (P<0.01) increased compared to before the SAP. The respondents were aware of the positive effects on physical function such as reduction of physical fatigue (boys 40.1%, girls 38.2%) and improvement of physical health (boys 36.5%, girls 32.8%). Thus, systematic and sustained political support at the national level is required to encourage healthy breakfast eating and physical activity in middle school students.