Nearly four in 10 Korean adolescents skipped breakfast for more than five days a week and a third of them ate fast food more than three times a week in 2022, a government report showed Friday.

According to the 2022 national student health examination report and the adolescents’ health behavior survey by the Ministry of Education and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), the percentage of Korean students in middle schools and high schools skipping breakfast went up to 39 percent in 2022 from 38 percent in 2021.

Nearly 60,000 students from 800 schools participated in a self-completed, anonymous online survey from August through November of last year about their health behaviors, including smoking, drinking, physical activity, and diet.

The survey showed that Korean teenagers’ overall eating habits have worsened.

Specifically, the percentage of those having fast food three times a week or more also grew to 27.3 percent in 2022, up by 1.1 percentage points compared to a year earlier.

Only 17.2 percent of students in middle and high schools ate fruits at least once a week in 2022, down 0.9 percentage points from 2021.

The reasons for skipping breakfast cited by students were no time (35.1%), no appetite (21.4%), and stomachache or indigestion (14%). Additionally, only 8.3% and 18% of them had sufficient vegetable consumption (three or more servings per day) and milk consumption (one or more servings per day), respectively. These figures were down 2.6 percentage points and 4.8 percentage points from the previous survey conducted in 2019.

Only 8.3 percent and 18 percent of them had sufficient vegetable consumption (three or more servings per day) and milk consumption (one or more servings per day), respectively. The figures were down 2.6 percentage points and 4.8 percentage points from the previous survey in 2019.

In terms of physical activity, only 16.3% of students exercised for 60 minutes per day, five or more days per week in 2022, although the figure was slightly up from 14.6% in 2021.

The mental health of Korean adolescents also deteriorated.

The report also revealed that the mental health of Korean adolescents has deteriorated, with the "depression experience rate" marking 24% in boys and 33.5% in girls in 2022. This percentage was up by 1.8 percentage points and 2.1 percentage points, respectively, compared to the previous year.