3 in 10 S. Korean adults skip breakfast every day

SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Yonhap) — Almost three in 10 South Korean adults skip breakfast, with people in their 20s doing so more often, a survey said Friday, raising the need for improving the public’s eating habits.

The survey on the status of the eating habits of the country’s adults, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, revealed that 29.5 percent and 26.1 percent of males and females, respectively, aged 19 or older did not eat breakfast in 2015.

The figures represented growth of 9.1 percentage points for men and 4.2 percentage points for women from 10 years ago, indicating an increasing number of people shun breakfast and move further away from the government’s goal of lowering the proportion of breakfast skippers in the entire adult population below 18.3 percent.

People in their 20s topped the list of breakfast skipping rates with 51.1 percent for men and 46.9 percent for women.

According to the survey, the breakfast skipping rate for people between the ages of 30 to 49 came to 32.4 percent and 25.6 percent for men and women, respectively, with 11.3 percent and 14.5 percent each for the 50 to 65-year-old age group. Only 5 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively, of people aged 65 or older do not eat breakfast.

Meanwhile, the rates of people aged 19 or older eating out more than one time a day came to 43.1 percent for men and 19.2 percent for women in 2015, showing a steady increase from 2008.

People in their 20s and 30s showed the highest rates of eating out in all age groups, with 44.2 percent of those in their 20s and 54.4 percent of the 30 to 40-year-old age bracket.

The survey also revealed that 58.2 percent of men and 63.6 percent of women generally eat a dinner with family members, both numbers decreasing from 2005.