Publication: Dietary Habits During Meal Among Malaysians Obese Adults: Findings from Malaysian Adult Nutrition Survey (MANS 2014)
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Date
2018
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Institute for Health Management
Abstract
Background: Obesity is a challenge for healthcare provider especially in the Asian region. Even though Malaysia focuses on better quality of life, Malaysia has not been exempted from this problem. Despite many countermeasures taken, the dietary habits during meals such as drinking plain water, eating fruits and chewing frequencies are somehow not highlighted for countering the obesity problem. This study focuses on the association between the dietary habits during meal and obesity status among Malaysian adults.
Materials and Methods: This study was part of the Malaysian Adult Nutrition Survey (MANS 2014), a nationwide cross- sectional study focusing on Malaysian adults aged 18 to 59 years old. The sampling method used was a multistage stratified sampling based on enumeration blocks provided by the Department of Statistics Malaysia. 4044 selected living quarters from the enumeration blocks were selected. Time frame for the data collection was initiated in Mac 2014 and ended in May 2014. Questionnaire on dietary habits during meals was asked in face-to-face interviews and anthropometry measurement was taken by trained research assistant. All the data were analysed using SPSS version 19.0.
Result: 3574 adults completed the survey with response rate of 88.4%. Twenty percent from total adults considered to either be obese or have abdominal obesity. Based on descriptive analysis, about 68% of the abdominal obesity and obese adults chewed less than 20 times during meal, 57% of abdominal obesity adults drank plain water after their main meal compared to 58% obese adults and 67% of abdominal obesity adults ate fruits after their main meal compared to 66% of obese adults. After being adjusted for age, gender and other sociodemographic variables, the results showed adults who did not know their own chewing frequencies had a chance to develop 1.9 times for obesity and 2.3 times for abdominal obesity. Moreover, adults who chew less than 20 times had a 1.9 times chance of developing abdominal obesity.
Conclusion: These data indicated that increasing the number of chews before swallowing might be a behavioural strategy to reduce food intake and potentially aid body-weight management. It would suggest that education on good food habits consumption to apply may be important to counter the obesity problem among Malaysian adults.
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Keywords
obesity, abdominal obesity, dietary habits