Tittle :

Differences in Eating Behaviours, Dietary Intake and Body Weight

Status between Male and Female Malaysian University Students

Hypothesis:
Objective(s): To obtain a preliminary understanding of the differences in eating
behaviours, dietary

intake,

between male and female university

weight

status,

and

body

composition

students.

Type of Nutritional Study: Case Control

Subject/Respondents: A total of 584 students (59.4% females and 40.6% males)
aged 20.61.4 years

from four Malaysian universities in the

Klang Valley participated in this study

Nutritional assessment methods used: Nutritional status, Eating Behaviours
Questionnaire and two-day 24-hour dietary recall method ( 9 item scale). Body
weight, height, waist circumference and percentage of body fat (Anthropometric
measurements) were measured.
Interesting findings:
- University students exhibit unhealthy eating behaviours due to the high cost of
healthy foods and the ease of availability of fast food
- Female students were always found to have better dietary habits as compared to
their male counterparts
- waist circumference was measured to determine the abdominal obesity.
- The classification of Waist Circumference was based on the World Health
Organization/International Association for the Study of Obesity/International Obesity
Task Force (WHO/IASO/IOTF) cut-offs for Asians with >90 cm for men and >80 cm
for

women

to

be

considered

at

increased

risk

for

abdominal

obesity

(WHO/IASO/IOTF, 2000).
- Waist-toheight ratio (WHtR) is another measurement used to assess health risk of
obesity (Ashwell & Hsieh, 2005). A value >0.5 indicates increased risk and >0.6
indicates substantially increased risk of obesity (Ashwell & Hsieh, 2005).
- Additionally, female students were found to be more commonly consuming fruits,
vegetables,milk and milk products, cereals, sweets and cakes while males were
found to be more commonly consuming soft drinks, meat, fish(Mikolajczyk et al.,
2009) and fast food (Huang et al., 2003).

- More Malay males (90.3%) skipped at least one meal daily while 34.2% of Chinese
and 17.4% of Indian females never skipped meals.
- More Malay females (80.9%) skipped at least one meal daily while more than onethird of the Chinese females (38.0%) never skipped meals.
- About 14.8% of the males and 30.3% of the females claimed that they were not
following any special diet but were trying to eat less to lose weight
- About 14.8% of the males and 30.3% of the females claimed that they were not
following any special diet but were trying to eat less to lose weight
- A majority of the participants did not meet the RNI levels for energy, vitamin C,
thiamine, riboflavin,
niacin, calcium and iron
- there were more underweight (22.4%) than overweight female students (12.3%)
- Sakamaki et al. (2005) explained that the high prevalence of underweight among
female university
students might be due to their desire for a thinner body size
- 27.8% of the male and 20.5% of the female students ate fast food at least once a
week.
- A reason for this low intake of fast food may include higher cost for fast food as
compared to the price of other traditional food.
- Sakamaki et al. (2005) which found that female students tend to eat with friends
and family more frequently than males
- The results of our study indicate that the majority of female university students
had inadequate intake of iron which may lead to iron deficiency anaemia.

Tittle:
Food Consumption Patterns: Findings from the Malaysian Adult Nutrition
Survey (MANS)
Hypothesis:
Objective(s):

To determine the food consumption pattern of Malaysian

adults
Type of Nutritional Study: Epidemiological study
Subject/Respondents:

Adults aged 18 to 59 years

A total of 6,742 subjects comprising 3,274 men and 3,468 women
representing the northern, central , southern and east coast of
Peninsular Malaysia as well as Sabah and Sarawak
carried out between October 2002 and December 2003

Nutritional assessment methods used:

A semi quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) which

consisted of 126 food items was used to evaluate the food
consumption pattern (habitual food intake) Food frequency
questionnaire (FFQ)
(subjects were asked on the frequency of intake of each food item
either per day, per week, per month, per year or never on the food
items listed)
(A stratified random sampling with proportional allocation was adopted
for this study)
24 hour dietary recall
Three day dietary record

Interesting findings:

Subjects were recruited from all over Malaysia with the majority
coming from the central zone of Peninsular Malaysia and the least from
Sabah.

Generally 97% of the Malaysian population consumed rice twice a day

and on average, 2 plates of rice per day ( rice is the staple food)

Plain water was the most frequently consumed beverage and a

majority of the population drank it at least six times daily

The frequency of intake of common food items such as rice, sugar,

leafy vegetables, marine fish, sweetened condensed milk, local kueh,
anchovy and biscuits were higher in the rural area than urban area.

Urban dwellers were more frequent eaters of chicken and eggs.

Men also consumed chicken and eggs more than women (similar with
Singapore)

Variety and the affordability (price) of these food items (chicken and
eggs) might be a reason as to why chicken and egg products were
consumed more frequently in the urban areas and among men

Women were shown to be frequent drinkers of full cream milk

compared to men who preferred sweetened condensed milk. (Women
was more aware about the benefit of milk)

In a small food consumption survey in Singapore, although 37% of the

population did not have a habit of drinking milk, they generally
preferred full cream milk over sweetened condensed milk

Soft drinks or carbonated drinks were not listed as the top five
beverage consumed daily.

Our study showed that people in the rural areas, in the east coast and
Sarawak, women and the teenagers (<20 years) drank less plain water.
These groups consumed more frequently beverages such as tea,
coffee, chocolate-based drinks and cordials.

The recommended water intake is at least 6 to 8 glasses a day (NCCFN,

1999).