Wednesday, 17 October 2012
A nation of fat and small kids
ONE out of four
children in the country is either overweight or obese. One out of three
teenagers is overweight, while one out of six is obese.
It's
no wonder Malaysia has earned a spot in the "World Map of Obesity".
Childhood
obesity levels in Malaysia are higher than in most Asian countries as well as
developed nations such as Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Germany.
And
the problem is getting worse, says Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia professor of
human nutrition Dr Mohd Ismail Noor and Universiti Malaya Medical Centre
paediatric endocrinologist Dr Muhammad Yazid Jalaludin.
Dr
Ismail says obesity is on the rise among all demographic groups. However,
prevalence rates differed across gender and ethnic groups.
His
studies in 2002 and 2008, which were funded by Nestle, were conducted among
children aged between 7 and 12 in Peninsular Malaysia. The survey data was
calculated based on the World Health Organisations' 2007 criteria.
A
total of 11,242 schoolchildren from 58 schools were surveyed in 2002, and
10,009 students from 69 schools in 2008.
The
2002 study found one out of every five children to be overweight or obese.
Dr
Ismail says boys had a higher obesity and overweight rate with an increase of
7.1 per cent, while the rate for girls increased by 4.4 per cent.
There
was an alarming increase in the number of overweight and obese Indian children,
followed by Malay and Chinese.
"Indian
schoolchildren had the highest overweight and obese rates. The increase was
rather significant at 9.9 per cent from 16.9 per cent to 26.1 per cent. Among
Malay children, the increase was 7.1 per cent from 19.1 per cent to 26.1 per
cent.
"The
Chinese must be doing something right as there was only a two per cent increase
from 25.6 per cent to 27.6 per cent."
Another
startling finding, he says, was that the increase in the overall prevalence of
obese and overweight children was in rural areas.
"The
prevalence in both urban and rural areas increased from 2002 to 2008. While the
urban setting saw an increase of 5.7 per cent, the increase was higher in the
rural areas at 7.6 per cent."
Overweight
and obesity levels were also high among preschoolers, he says, as indicated by
another survey.
"A
recently concluded study involving 992 preschoolers aged 5 to 6 years, randomly
selected from 72 privately-owned kindergartens in the Klang Valley, reported
that the prevalence of overweight and obese boys and girls were 9.7 per cent
and 9.2 per cent respectively," says Dr Ismail, who is also the president
of the Malaysian Association for the Study of Obesity.
Based
on the survey by Dr Yazid's group, the Malaysian Paediatric Obesity Working
Group Research, at a secondary school in Petaling Jaya among 1,200 students
between 12 and 17 years in 2005/2006, about one-third (28 per cent) of the
students were overweight and, among them, 16 per cent were obese.
Of
this number, says Dr Yazid, 19 per cent of Malays were obese, followed by
Indians (14.5 per cent) and Chinese (13 per cent).
He
says that 70 per cent of overweight students were at high risk of contracting
diabetes.
"We have to do something to address the
problem."
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