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Editorial
January 2015

Continued Promise of School Breakfast Programs for Improving Academic Outcomes : Breakfast Is Still the Most Important Meal of the Day

Author Affiliations
  • 1Initiative for Healthy Schools, College of Education, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho
  • 2Institute for Health Research and Policy, University of Illinois at Chicago
JAMA Pediatr. 2015;169(1):13-14. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.2409

A groundbreaking study,1 published in this journal nearly 25 years ago, documented improved academic outcomes among low-income schoolchildren who received school breakfast via the School Breakfast Program (SBP) vs those who did not, including significantly decreased tardiness and absences and improved performance on standardized tests of academic achievement. Since that time, the empirical study of school breakfast initiatives has increased substantially, with several literature reviews2-4 documenting the importance of breakfast for a variety of health and academic outcomes.

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