Abstract
BackgroundThe prevalence of overweight and obesity among Malaysian women remained high over the past three decades. Collaboration with existing community at-risk may be feasible for wide-scale prevention of overweight and obesity in the country. The aims of this study were to examine the impact of community-based lifestyle intervention among overweight and obese women on their anthropometric and body composition changes as compared to the usual care group.MethodsThis was a quasi-experimental study conducted in low-cost flats in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A total of 255 overweight and obesity individuals aged between 18 to 59 years old were assigned to either the lifestyle intervention group (n = 169) or the usual care group (n = 146) over a period of 6 months. Individuals in the intervention group received 6 individual lifestyle counselling comprised of physical activity, diet counselling and self-monitoring components aimed to achieve at least 5% weight loss while individuals in the usual care group obtained six sessions of health care seminars from health care providers. These individuals were then followed-up for another 6 months without any intervention as part of maintenance period.ResultsAn intention-to-treat analysis of between-groups at 6-month of intervention (β, 95% CI) revealed greater changes in weight among intervention individuals’ (− 1.09 kg vs. -0.99; p < 0.018) as compared to the control group. These changes were not sustained during the maintenance phase (between 6 and 12 months). Overall significant improvement at 12th month was found for visceral fat (− 0.78 vs. -0.64; p-value = 0.017), although no significant changes between groups were detected either during intervention or maintenance phase (p > 0.05). Individuals in the intervention group showed a significant increase for skeletal muscle mass (0.13 kg) than those individuals in the control group (− 0.37 kg), p = 0.033, throughout the study period.ConclusionThis study provides evidence that an overweight and obesity prevention program can be implemented in a community setting, with some reduction of several anthropometric and body composition parameters.
Highlights
The prevalence of overweight and obesity among Malaysian women remained high over the past three decades
Lifestyle intervention in the community settings, could provide an effective opportunity to reach a large number of overweight and obese population [15]
Mean ± SD for skeletal muscle mass during baseline was higher for individuals in the intervention groups (22.2 ± 2.8 kg) compared to those in the control group (21.5 ± 3.0 kg)
Summary
The prevalence of overweight and obesity among Malaysian women remained high over the past three decades. The aims of this study were to examine the impact of community-based lifestyle intervention among overweight and obese women on their anthropometric and body composition changes as compared to the usual care group. An increase in the national prevalence of overweight and obesity in Malaysia has been documented over the last three decades [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. Women and of those with low educational attainment were the sub-groups of the population that were affected [5,6,7,8]. Lifestyle intervention in the community settings, could provide an effective opportunity to reach a large number of overweight and obese population [15]
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