Abdominal obesity (AO) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, hypertension and diabetes mellitus in adults. There is a lack of data on the magnitude and socio-demographic profile of AO among Malaysian adults at the national level. In the Third National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS III) conducted in 2006, AO of adults aged 18 years and above was determined based on the waist circumference as part of the nutritional status assessment. This article reports the prevalence of AO in relation to socio-economic factors and demographic characteristics of adult subjects. Out of a total of 33,465 eligible individuals 18 years and above, waist circumference was measured in 32,900 (98.3%) individuals. The prevalence of AO was assessed using the cut-off points recommended by World Health Organization. The mean waist circumference in men and women was 84.0cm [95% confidence interval (95% CI): 83.8, 84.3] and 80.3cm (95% CI: 80.1, 80.6) respectively. The national prevalence of AO was 17.4% (95% CI: 16.9, 17.9). The identified risks of AO were women (OR: 4.2, 95% CI: 3.8, 4.6), aged 50-59 years (OR: 5.6, 95% CI: 4.0, 7.7), Indians (OR: 3.0, 95% CI: 2.4, 3.8), housewives (OR: 1.4, 95% CI: 1.1, 1.7), subjects with primary education (OR: 1.3, 95% CI: 1.1, 1.5) and ever married (OR: 1.4, 95% CI: 1.2, 1.6). Being the largest population-based study on AO among Malaysians, these findings have important public health implications. There is an urgent need to revise public health policies and programmes aimed at prevention of abdominal obesity especially in the groups at risk.

Introduction: Introduction: Nutrition screening is recommended as a first step of nutrition care to allow early identification and intervention of malnourished patients. The present study determined the validities and reliabilities of two malnutrition screening tools namely, the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) and Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST) among adult patients at the Hospital Kuala Lumpur. Methods: sensitivity, specificity and predictive value of MUST and MST were conducted against the Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), anthropometric parameters including body mass index (BMI), calf circumference (CC), mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) and energy intake. Inter-rater reliability was evaluated using kappa value (κ) to determine the level of agreement between raters. Results: A total of 151 subjects with mean age of 45.2 ± 13.7 years participated in this study. Prevalence of malnutrition according to MUST, MST and SGA was 34.4%, 33.8% and 19.9%, respectively. As compared to SGA, MUST and MST had a sensitivity of 96.6% and 93.3% respectively, whereas the specificity was 80.9% for both tools. The sensitivity and specificity of MUST against the anthropometric parameters (BMI, CC and MUAC) were between 53.8% to 88.8% and 67.4% to 69.9%, respectively. The sensitivity values for MST were between 46.1% to 63.6% and specificity values were between 64.4% to 67.6%. The inter-rater reliability of MUST was higher (substantial, mean (κ) = 0.78) than for MST (moderate, mean (κ) = 0.52). Conclusions: In Conclusions: conclusion, MUST was found to have similar validity levels but higher reliability result than MST. Based on our result, MUST is recommended for use in identifying adult patients who are at high risk of malnutrition. It can be used as a malnutrition screening tool but there is a need to evaluate the cost effectiveness of its implementation.

Introduction: Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs) play an important role in developing cognitive function in children, especially Docosahexanoic Acid (DHA). However, there is no suitable dietary assessment tool to assess DHA intake among Malaysian children. Thus, this study assessed the validity of an interviewer-administered semi-quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) for estimating DHA intake among Malay school children in the Sepang District. Methods: Thirty 12-year-old Malay children (13 boys and 17 girls) were recruited through purposive sampling. Their DHA intake for one month duration was assessed using a 30-food item FFQ and validated against a 3-day food record. Results: The majority of the subjects (70%) had normal body mass index, 6.7% were overweight, 16.7% obese, whilst the rest were in the thin category. The reliability of FFQ was found to be good with a Cronbach’s α coefficient value of 0.815. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test indicated no significant difference in mean intake between the two assessment methods. Significant and strong correlation between FFQ and the 3-day food record was found for total omega-3 PUFAs (r=0.812)and DHA (r=0.839) using both methods. Bland Altman analysis exhibited no apparent systematic bias between the two methods for DHA and total omega-3 PUFAs intake, whilst a quartile analysis assigned 73.3% of the subjects into the same quartile. Conclusion: The FFQ was found to be valid in estimating DHA intake among Malay school children, and it is recommended that its validity be tested on other ethnic population groups.