Sharifah Wajihah Wafa

Objectively measured habitual physical activity and sedentary behaviour in obese and non-obese Malaysian children

The present study examined objectively measured physical activity in Malaysian children and compared the differences in physical levels between obese and healthy weight children. Eighty-six obese children were matched for age and sex with 86 healthy weight children with median age 9.5 years. Habitual physical activity and sedentary behaviour were measured over 5 days using Actigraph accelerometers. Time spent sedentary was significantly higher in the obese group (90% vs. 86% of daytime; p = 0.001). Moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity was significantly higher in the healthy weight group (1.2 vs. 0.7% of daytime, p < 0.001). In both healthy weight and obese children, physical activity levels were exceptionally low, although moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity was significantly lower in the obese group than the healthy weight group. Efforts to prevent and treat obesity in Malaysian children will need a substantial focus on the promotion of reductions in sedentary behaviour and increases in physical activity.

Quality of life of obese children in Malaysia

BACKGROUND Quality of life (QoL) is impaired in childhood obesity, but the literature on this is all from Western countries. Aim. To test for impairment of QoL in obese children in Malaysia, using parent-reported and child-reported QoL. METHODS Health-related Quality of Life was measured using the Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory version 4.0. Comparison of QoL between a community sample of 90 obese children (as defined by US CDC and Cole-IOTF definitions), median age 9.5 y (interquartile range [IQR] 8.6, 10.5 y) and 90 control children of healthy weight (BMI less than the 85th centile of US reference data), median age 10.0 y (IQR 9.6, 10.5 y). Children were matched pair-wise for age, gender, and ethnic group, and controls were recruited from schools in the same area as obese participants. RESULTS For child self-report, the healthy weight group had significantly higher QoL for the physical (median 82.9, IQR 65.7, 90.6), and psychosocial domains (median, 73.3, IQR 64.4, 83.3), and total QoL (median 76.1, IQR 64.1, 84.8) compared to the obese group (median 67.2, IQR 59.4, 81.3; median 62.5, IQR 53.3, 75.4; median 60.9, IQR 50.8, 73.9; all p < 0.001). There were no significant differences between the obese and healthy weight group for parent-reported physical health, psychosocial health, or total QoL. CONCLUSION Obese children in Malaysia have markedly poorer QoL than their peers, but this is not evident when parent reports of QoL are used.

Dietary Carbohydrate, Fiber and Sugar and Risk of Breast Cancer According to Menopausal Status in Malaysia

BACKGROUND Dietary carbohydrate, fiber and sugar intake has been shown to play a role in the etiology of breast cancer, but the findings have been inconsistent and limited to developed countries with higher cancer incidence. OBJECTIVE To examine the association of premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer risk with dietary carbohydrate, fiber and sugar intake. MATERIALS AND METHODS This population based case-control study was conducted in Malaysia with 382 breast cancer patients and 382 controls. Food intake pattern was assessed via an interviewer-administered food frequency questionnaire. Logistic regression was used to compute odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) and a broad range of potential confounders were included in analysis. RESULTS A significant two fold increased risk of breast cancer among premenopausal (OR Q4 to Q1=1.93, 95%CI: 1.53-2.61, p-trend=0.001) and postmenopausal (OR Q4 to Q1=1.87, 95%CI: 1.03-2.61, p-trend=0.045) women was observed in the highest quartile of sugar. A higher intake of dietary fiber was associated with a significantly lower breast cancer risk among both premenopausal (OR Q4 to Q1=0.31, 95%CI: 0.12-0.79, p-trend=0.009) and postmenopausal (OR Q4 to Q1=0.23, 95%CI: 0.07-0.76, p-trend=0.031) women. CONCLUSIONS Sugar and dietary fiber intake were independently related to pre- and postmenopausal breast cancer risk. However, no association was observed for dietary carbohydrate intake.

Measuring the Daily Activity of Lying Down, Sitting, Standing and Stepping of Obese Children Using the ActivPALTM Activity Monitor.

This study describes the patterns of objectively measured sitting, standing and stepping in obese children using the activPALTM and highlights possible differences in sedentary levels and patterns during weekdays and weekends. Sixty-five obese children, aged 9-11 years, were recruited from primary schools in Terengganu, Malaysia. Sitting, standing and stepping were objectively measured using an activPALTM accelerometer over a period of 4-7 days. Obese children spent an average of 69.6% of their day sitting/lying, 19.1% standing and 11.3% stepping. Weekdays and weekends differed significantly in total time spent sitting/lying, standing, stepping, step count, number of sedentary bouts and length of sedentary bouts (p < 0.05, respectively). Obese children spent a large proportion of their time sedentarily, and they spent more time sedentarily during weekends compared with weekdays. This study on sedentary behaviour patterns presents valuable information for designing and implementing strategies to decrease sedentary time among obese children, particularly during weekends.

Influence of School Location within Districts of Terengganu on Body Weight Status among School Adolescents

Rapid development in the urbanisation process is linked to a shift in dietary intake and lifestyle. The locality may also determine the differences in socio-demographic and environmental factors related to nutrition between the rural and urban populations. The present study aimed to determine prevalence of obesity and to compare the body weight status on body weight status among school adolescents aged 10 to 17 years within districts of Terengganu. A cross sectional survey involving school adolescents aged 10 to 17 years from all government school in seven districts in Terengganu were carried out. Anthropometrics data were obtained from National Fitness Standard (SEGAK) assessment which was uploaded into specific developed database Health Monitoring System (HEMS) and BMI were classified using WHO BMI-for-age zscore. A total of 62,567 school adolescents were involved in this study. Girls had significantly higher BMI than boys in age groups of 13 to 15 and 16 to 17 years old. There were significant differences in mean BMI between rural and urban school locations school adolescents in all age groups (P <0.001) among boys and girls. Significant differences were also found between rural and urban school location in 10 to 12 years old in Dungun and Marang, whilst Kemaman and Kuala Terengganu districts had significant difference between rural and urban in 16 to 17 years old age group. Marang had the highest obesity prevalence within urban 15.3% school location whilst rural school location within Kuala Terengganu had the highest prevalence of obesity (14.1%). The obesity prevalence increased substantially regardless of school locations International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 2017, Vol. 7, No. 6

Data Mining Techniques for Classification of Childhood Obesity Among Year 6 School Children

Today, data mining is broadly applied in many fields, including healthcare and medical fields. Obesity problem among children is one of the issues commonly explored using data mining techniques. In this paper, the classification of childhood obesity among year six school children from two districts in Terengganu, Malaysia is discussed. The data were collected from two main sources; a Standard Kecergasan Fizikal Kebangsaan untuk Murid Sekolah Malaysia/National Physical Fitness Standard for Malaysian School Children (SEGAK) Assessment Program and a set of distributed questionnaire. From the collected data, 4,245 complete data sets were promptly analyzed. The data preprocessing and feature selection were implemented to the data sets. The classification techniques, namely Bayesian Network, Decision Tree, Neural Networks and Support Vector Machine (SVM) were implemented and compared on the data sets. This paper presents the evaluation of several feature selection methods based on different classifiers.