ABSTRACT
@#The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has led to imposed movement restrictions and lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19 cases in the community. These lockdowns had greatly changed people’s daily lives, including physical activity and sedentary behaviour. The aim of this scoping review was to establish available evidence linked to physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SB) among adults in the Asia region during the COVID-19 outbreak. This scoping review was conducted using Arksey & O’Malley’s protocol with 132 studies included after full-text screening. Changes in PA were reported in 122 studies and SB in 50 studies. Most studies reported a reduction in the total level of PA and a hike in sedentary and screen time. This decrement in PA and increment in SB was related to poor mental health, body weight increase and complications in COVID-19 patients, while participants who maintained or improved their PA reported better health outcomes.
ABSTRACT
@#Overweight and obesity in Malaysia pose serious threats to health. Prevalence has escalated to alarming levels in recent decades despite a multitude of public health dietary messages geared towards obesity prevention and health promotion. Gaps between health messages, messengers, and the public must be identified and closed to effectively combat obesity and overweight. This review article aims to examine public health dietary messages, guidelines, and programmes for the prevention of obesity in Malaysia, and explore potential reasons for the continued rise in its prevalence. Public health dietary communication in Malaysia has progressed and improved substantially over the years. However, most messages have been designed for the general audience, with little consideration of differences in physical, social, cultural, and environmental backgrounds, and varying levels of comprehension. We offer several recommendations to increase the effectiveness of public health dietary messages in fighting the obesity epidemic, based on a cross-sectoral, place-based approach that recognise the complexity of the underlying causes of obesity.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Over the past few decades, Malaysia has been experiencing an increased prevalence of overweight and obesity that threatens the health of Malaysians. Poor dietary intake is one of the major contributors to the development of obesity and many non-communicable diseases. The dietary intakes of adults in Malaysia were assessed to determine the association between the dietary intake variables and the body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) measurements. This study examined whether the dietary intake achieved the recommended nutritional guidelines and compared the intakes between both sexes. SUBJECTS/METHODS: The height, weight, and WC of four-hundred-and-ninety adults (n = 490) in Malaysia were measured using standard procedures. The three-day 24-hour dietary recalls were conducted on 422 out of the 490 adults and their dietary intakes were evaluated in detail. The selected dietary intake variables were used to determine the associations with the obesity indicators. RESULTS: Among the participants, 52.8% were overweight or obese. After data analysis, the mean energy intake was 1,550 kcal/day, in which male participants had a significantly higher energy and macronutrients intake than females. Protein consumption and its percentage of energy contribution exceeded the recommended range. The consumption of fruits, vegetables, and milk and milk products were lower than the recommended number of servings for a healthy diet. The male participants consumed significantly more servings of carbohydrate-based foods, meat, and fats, oils, and sweets than females. Among the selected dietary intake variables, only the carbohydrate intake was negatively associated with the BMI (Estimate b = −0.008) and WC measurements (Estimate b = −0.019) after adjusting for covariates. CONCLUSIONS: This study evaluated the dietary intakes of a sample of Malaysian adults and its association with the obesity indicators. The results highlight the need for improvements and modifications of the dietary intake of Malaysians to reduce the overweight and obesity rates.