Dietary Practices and Meal Patterns among Overweight and Obese School Children in Malaysia: Baseline Data from a School-Based Intervention Study
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2020
Abstract
This study aimed to determine dietary practices and meal patterns among Malaysian overweight and obese school children at baseline. This study was part of a school-based obesity intervention study, My Body is Fit and Fabulous at School (MyBFF@school). It involved 1045 primary and 1041 secondary overweight and obese school children from a randomly selected 23 out of 1196 primary and 15 out of 416 secondary government schools in central Peninsular Malaysia. The results showed a significantly higher of adequate intake (4–8 servings/day) of cereals and grains among primary (54.7%) than secondary school children (48.2%). About 28.2% of primary and 32.6% of secondary school children had consumed adequate fruit (2 servings/day), while a very low percentage of both primary (5.0%) and secondary (3.6%) school children consumed adequate vegetables (3 servings/day). As for the meal patterns, school children in both primary and secondary were not taking breakfast regularly (mean±SD for primary: 3.16 ± 2.61 days/week vs secondary: 2.97 ± 2.52 days/week). There was also a significantly higher mean frequency of primary school children brought plain water to school than the secondary school children. In conclusion, urgent actions to address improper dietary practices and meal patterns of overweight and obese school children in Malaysia are warranted. © 2019, © 2019 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Keywords
Childhood obesity, dietary practices, meal patterns
Divisions
Education,fac_med
Funders
Medical Research and Ethics Committee, Ministry of Health Malaysia (NMRR NO: 13-439-16563)
Publication Title
Ecology of Food and Nutrition
Volume
59
Issue
3
Publisher
Taylor & Francis