Association between Dietary Diversity and Weight Status of Aboriginal Primary School Children in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia.

Divanirsh Devindran,Jia Ling Tay,Zhe Yee Oeh,Silambarasi Kuralneethi,Lih Shiow Lim,Wei Ni Grace Chieng,Lih Xuan Tan,Vaidehi Ulaganathan,Zen Yang Eddie Eng,Sook Yee Lim

doi:10.21315/mjms2022.29.1.10

Divanirsh Devindran, Jia Ling Tay + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.21315/mjms2022.29.1.10

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Abstract

BackgroundThe purpose of this study is to determine the association between dietary diversity and weight status of aboriginal primary school children.MethodsDietary diversity measures food intake diversity in food groups, whereas weight status indicates nutritional status. Dietary serving score (DSS) method was used to determine dietary diversity status, while weight status was assessed using BMI-for-Age (BAZ).ResultsResults reported that 51.9% and 54.2% were male and 10 years old-12 years old children, respectively. A total of 36.4% of children consumed cereal/grains diversely while fruits were not diversely consumed by 96.4% of them. Approximately 60.8% of children were reported to have normal weight status, which was followed by overweight (17.7%), obese (16.7%) and thinness to severe-thinness (4.8%). There was an association between DSS of fruits, meat/fish/ eggs, legumes/lentils and milk/dairy products with age group, vegetables DSS with gender and BAZ with parental employment status (P < 0.05). The association between DSS of all food groups and total with BAZ were reported to be insignificant, indicating no association between both variables (0.00 < r < 0.30; P > 0.05).ConclusionChildren from this study were shown to practice a monotonous diet, although the majority of them were within normal weight status.

Highlights

Malnutrition refers to the excess, insufficient or imbalanced nutrient intake from a person’s diet [1]
The key findings in this study reported the shared similarity and differences with a study conducted by Chong et al [19] in which the authors reported that cereal/grains (4.77 ± 0.05), fruits (1.06 ± 0.04), vegetables (1.17 ± 0.07), legumes (0.26 ± 0.01), fish (0.75 ± 0.02) and milk/dairy products (0.59 ± 0.03) food groups failed to achieve the recommended serving size while meat/poultry food group achieved the recommended serving size
Diet diversity status has no association with the weight status of aborigine children in this study

Summary

Introduction

Malnutrition refers to the excess, insufficient or imbalanced nutrient intake from a person’s diet [1]. Malnutrition has an adverse impact on children’s growth and development in which the severity is determined based on the degree of malnutrition. Some of these impacts include stunting (low Height-for-Age), underweight (low Weight-for-Age), wasting (low Weight-for-Height), as well as overweight and obesity (high Weight-for-Age). It was discovered that the proportion of underweight among children with learning disabilities was 3.4%–3.65%, while 7.6%–37% and 5.7%– 52% were reported as overweight and obese, respectively [2]. They are at higher risk of mortality, whereby childhood mortality among children aged below 5 years old is approximately 45% in low and middle-income countries [1]. The purpose of this study is to determine the association between dietary diversity and weight status of aboriginal primary school children

Objectives

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Discussion

Conclusion