Title:

Does increased frequency of meal skipping lead to poorer bone health in college women attending a northeast university?

Impact of Meal-Skipping on Bone Health in Female College Students. Objective: To determine if increasing frequency of meal skipping is associated with poorer bone health in college women (18-24) attending a northeast university. Methods: Data were collected between 2005-2021 from the College Health and Nutrition Assessment Survey (CHANAS), an ongoing cross-sectional study conducted at a public-northeast university. After exclusion of participants with missing/incorrect data, female students (n=3599) were included in the final analysis. Participants’ bone heels were assessed via one-time broadband ultrasound attenuation (BUA) using the McCue CUBA Clinical; bare left and right heels were measured and averaged. Meal-skipping habits (meals skipped/wk) were self-reported and categorized as: none, 1-3, and >4 or more. Group differences were examined via ANCOVA using age, BMI, alcohol intake, smoking status, and daily step count as covariates. Results: College females (n=7383) had a mean BUA score of 83.22 + 16.4 db/mhz and reported varying levels of skipping meals: 22.1% reported none, 45.0% reported 1-3, and 33.0% reported >4 meals/skipped/wk. Of the female participants with Z-score data (N=5465), 71.2% reported a Z-score indicative of low risk for osteoporosis/osteopenia, and 28.9% reported a Z-score indicative of increased risk. Lower mean BUA scores were observed in females who skipped >4 meals compared to females who skipped 1-3 meals or 0 meals/wk (81.4 + 15.9 vs. 83.1 + 16.4 and 82.8 + 16.3 db/mhz, respectively, both p<0.05). Conclusions: Meal-skipping was associated with lower average BUA scores in college women. Future research should investigate the various lifestyle and dietary factors that may impact bone health independent of meal-skipping behaviors. College health administrators and dietitians can utilize these data to tailor nutrition education to the female college population; however, more rigorous experimental studies in this population. Funding Source: New Hampshire Agriculture Experiment Station and USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch Project 1010738.

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