Children's body mass index, participation in school meals, and observed energy intake at school meals

Table 2 School meal participation (in days) by BMI category for the total sample and subset^a

	Underweight & healthy weight (< 85^th percentile)		Overweight (≥ 85^th to < 95^th percentiles)		Obese (≥ 95^th to < 99^th percentiles)		Severely obese (≥ 99^th percentile)
	All children n = 811	Subset n = 232	All children n = 295	Subset n = 87	All children n = 321	Subset n = 100	All children n = 144	Subset n = 46
Participation	- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - mean (standard deviation) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Breakfast^b	104 (58)	141 (27)	104 (57)	141 (25)	106 (58)	142 (25)	107 (55)	140 (24)
Lunch^c	156 (28)	162 (16)	155 (32)	163 (11)	156 (29)	161 (14)	157 (25)	163 (10)
Combined^d	98 (56)	133 (26)	97 (55)	133 (25)	99 (55)	133 (26)	100 (53)	133 (23)

^a Each child in the subset was observed eating school breakfast and school lunch (with both meals observed on the same day).
^b Breakfast participation was the number of days on which a child participated in school breakfast during his or her fourth-grade school year.
^c Lunch participation was the number of days on which a child participated in school lunch during his or her fourth-grade school year.
^d Combined participation was the number of days on which a child participated in both school breakfast and school lunch during his or her fourth-grade school year.

ISSN: 1479-5868