A Preliminary Study of the Evaluation on the Dietary Pattern among Obese School Children Said Norimah1,*, Md Nor Norazmir2, Sharoni Siti Khuzaimah Ahmad3,4 1Postgraduate Student, PhD in Nursing, Centre for Nursing Studies, Faculty Health Sciences, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Selangor, Kampus Puncak Alam 2Deputy Dean & Lecture for Center for Nutrition and Dietetics, Faculty Health Sciences, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Selangor, Kampus Puncak Alam 3Koordinator of Institute of Neo Education (INED) Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) 4Lecture for Nursing Studies, Faculty Health Sciences, UiTM, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Selangor, Kampus Puncak Alam, Malaysia *Corresponding author: Norimah Said, Postgraduate Student, PhD in Nursing, Centre for Nursing Studies, Faculty Health Sciences, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Selangor, Kampus Puncak Alam. email: norimah2809@puncakalam.uitm.edu.my
Online published on 30 April, 2019. Abstract The World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked Malaysia as the sixth country in Asia with the highest prevalence of obesity with 38% affecting children. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the elements of dietary pattern related to behavior with regards to the food, environment, attitude, and knowledge of consumption pertaining fruit and vegetables; presenting a preliminary result. In this study, a quantitative method is utilized where questionnaires are distributed to 200 recipients from primary schools, aged 10 to 12-years-old, and 132 respondents have returned with feedback. This study, it is discovered that the school children are likely to consume more sweetened beverages such as soft drinks causing 67.6% of the school children to reflect an unhealthy score under health practice, 57.1% of them obtain an unhealthy score for their attitude towards snacking between meals and consuming sweet beverages and 85.7% of these recipients showcase low knowledge regarding healthy food such as fruits and vegetables. All the school children do not obtain a healthy score relating to the environment. The Body Mass Index (BMI) shows that water and fruit consumption have a significant relationship p-value >0.05. Therefore, the results of this study are beneficial to create a pre-requisite for the module development of health education centering on childhood obesity management. Top Keywords Dietary pattern, healthy food, nutrition, obesity, school children. Top |