Abstract:
Introduction: Obesity is a serious type of malnutrition affecting people of all age groups across the world, especially the young. One of the factors that are strongly associated with overweight or obesity is the consumption of fast food.
Objective: To study the relationship between fast food intake and overweight/obesity among secondary school children of Kepong, Kuala Lumpur.
Methods: The study design was case-control. The sample size comprised of 148 participants. There were 47 cases and 101 controls. All the questionnaires were self-administered. Univriate and Multivariate analysis were conducted for comparison purposes. In this study, a p-value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results: This study revealed that the respondents, on an average, were consuming fast food three to four times a month. Majority of them consumed fast food because they liked the taste and had even developed craving for it. However, the association between fast food consumption and overweight was not found to be statistically significant. The Multiple Logistic regression analysis revealed that father’s education level, family history of hypertension; eating out of home and dieting were significantly associated with fast food consumption. The multivariate analysis also revealed that gender, mother’s occupation, BMI of father, BMI of mother, family history of high blood cholesterol, fruit intake, dieting and level of physical activity were significantly associated with overweight/obesity.
Conclusion: The findings from this study suggest that family–based nutritional interventions, promotion of healthy eating habits and increase in physical activity are essential for the well-being of adolescent school children as they are the future leaders of the nation.
