Childhood obesity in Malaysia

Causes of Childhood Obesity in Malaysia: potential interaction of food availability, children’s lifestyle choices and eating behaviour

Saheera Kamarzaman, University of Western Australia eera0504@yahoo.com
Neville Bruce, University of Western Australia neville.bruce@uwa.edu.au
Greg Tan, University of Notre Dame Australia gtan@nd.edu.au

Background

Childhood overweight and obesity has reached epidemic levels in developed and newly industrialized countries, and has begun to rise in developing countries in which deficiency diseases and malnutrition still represent a major public health problem, including Malaysia. This country has undergone a transition from undernutrition to relative overnutrition within a period of 30 years. For example, from early 1990’s to 2000, the reported incidence of underweight among Malaysian children has dropped from 55% to 14.4% while overweight has increased from approximately 4% to 9.8% with at least 7.3% of them are from the city of Kuala Lumpur.

Despite the rapid rise in childhood obesity worldwide, the mechanism of obesity development is not fully understood. Studies have indicated that childhood overweight is partially environmentally influenced, although specific environmental causes are unclear. Therefore it is critical to identify environmental factors that can be manipulated for prevention or treatment purposes. So the present project has been designed to elucidate the underlying causes of childhood obesity particularly among Malaysian children based on the theoretical model (see Figure 1) that explains hypothesized interaction between food availability, children’s lifestyle choices and eating behaviour.

Aims of the study

• To review recent changes in prevalence of overweight and obesity among children in Malaysia.
• To determine the relationship between food consumption and exercise level on weight status.
• To examine the relationship between demographic background, family structure and social factors on food availability and children’s lifestyle choices, and ultimately weight status.
• To evaluate the strength of personal factors in influencing children’s lifestyle choices and their importance on determining weight status.

This study will examine up to 1000 primary school children from both higher and lower socio-economic status schools: data will include anthropometric measures and questionnaires delivered to children and parents.

Above all, the project is being conducted with a view to assist government, private health agencies and parents to improve the nutritional status and implement better public health policies corresponding to the current environment. If successful, it is also hoped that the experimental approach used will be of benefit to studies in other comparable countries.