METHODS/DESIGN: This quasi-experimental study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the SNP between intervention and comparison groups before and after the SNP, and after a 3-month follow-up. The SNP consisted of two main components, whereby three nutrition education sessions were implemented by trained teachers using three standardised modules, and healthy school food environment was implemented by the canteen food handlers with the provision of healthy menu to children during school recess times. Children from intervention group participated in the SNP, in addition to the standard Physical and Health Curriculum. The comparison group attended only the standardised Physical and Health Curriculum and the school canteen food handlers were reminded to follow the standard canteen guidelines from the Ministry of Education Malaysia. The assessment parameters in evaluating the effectiveness of the programme were knowledge, attitude and practice on nutrition, eating behaviours, physical activity, body composition, psychological distress, cognitive performance and health-related quality of life. Assessments were conducted at three time points: pre-intervention, post-intervention and 3-month follow-up.
DISCUSSION: It was hypothesised that the SNP would be effective in promoting healthy lifestyle among school children, and further contributes in preventing malnutrition problem, enhancing cognitive performance and improving health-related quality of life among school children. Findings of the present study can be expanded to other schools in future on ways to improve nutrition education and healthy school food environment.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: UMIN Clinical Trial Registration UMIN000032914 (Date of registration: 7th June 2018, retrospectively registered).
PROTOCOL VERSION: 16th September 2019 & Version 4.
OBJECTIVE: The objectives of the study are to explore the determinants, motives, and barriers to healthy eating behaviors in online communities and provide insight into YouTube video commenters' perceptions and sentiments of healthy eating through text mining techniques.
METHODS: This paper applied text mining techniques to identify and categorize meaningful healthy eating determinants. These determinants were then incorporated into hypothetically defined constructs that reflect their thematic and sentimental nature in order to test our proposed model using a variance-based structural equation modeling procedure.
RESULTS: With a dataset of 4654 comments extracted from YouTube videos in the context of Malaysia, we apply a text mining method to analyze the perceptions and behavior of healthy eating. There were 10 clusters identified with regard to food ingredients, food price, food choice, food portion, well-being, cooking, and culture in the concept of healthy eating. The structural equation modeling results show that clusters are positively associated with healthy eating with all P values less than .001, indicating a statistical significance of the study results. People hold complex and multifaceted beliefs about healthy eating in the context of YouTube videos. Fruits and vegetables are the epitome of healthy foods. Despite having a favorable perception of healthy eating, people may not purchase commonly recognized healthy food if it has a premium price. People associate healthy eating with weight concerns. Food taste, variety, and availability are identified as reasons why Malaysians cannot act on eating healthily.
CONCLUSIONS: This study offers significant value to the existing literature of health-related studies by investigating the rich and diverse social media data gleaned from YouTube. This research integrated text mining analytics with predictive modeling techniques to identify thematic constructs and analyze the sentiments of healthy eating.
METHODS: The Food Sensations® for Parents five-week program was delivered to participants from community-based parenting organisations during 2020 and 2021. Formative research and a pre-post evaluation design were adopted.
RESULTS: Pre- and post-evaluation data were collected from 224 participants (96% female). There was a statistically significant improvement in the mean score for 13 food literacy behaviours, 10 positive parenting feeding practices and a mean increase in parents' daily vegetable intake of 1/3 serve. Participants reported significantly greater net improvements in food literacy behaviours than feeding practices, the largest being the Use a nutrition information panel to make food choices (33.1%). Multivariate logistic regression analyses found English as a first language, being older than 35, and from a higher Socio-Economic Index for Areas resulted in a higher likelihood of positive changes in behaviours and practices.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that the program is effective in improving the frequency of use of food literacy behaviours, positive parenting feeding practices and increasing vegetable consumption. SO WHAT?: Analysing improvements in food literacy behaviours and feeding practices provides clarity on what change can be expected with a five-week parent program.
METHODS: The cross-sectional study was conducted from January to May 2016 in seven schools of Bhakkar district in the Punjab province of Pakistan, and comprised of school children aged 11-12 years. Diet diaries were used to assess the frequency of sugar intake while caries was assessed using the Modified International Caries Detection and Assessment System. Bivariate analysis was used to assess the association of sugar consumption and early carious lesion with selected sociodemographic variables, and regression analysis was performed to evaluate the factor that matters most in caries occurrence.
RESULTS: Of the 226 subjects, 115(51%) had early carious lesion. Mean frequency of sugar intake was 5.2±3.2 times per day. Children who consumed sugar between main meals (p=0.01) and within two hours before bedtime (p=0.04) had significantly higher history of having caries. Cariogenic intake before bedtime was significantly associated with overall caries risk (p=0.02).
CONCLUSIONS: The frequency of sugar intake among the subjects was slightly higher than the recommended level. .
STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey was done involving 707 different flavours and packaging of instant noodles sold in six hypermarkets and retailer chains in Malaysia and the corresponding brand's official websites in 2017.
METHODS: The salt content (gram per serving and per 100 g) was collected from the product packaging and corresponding brand's official website.
RESULTS: Of the 707 different packaging and flavours of instant noodles, only 62.1% (n=439) provided the salt content in their food label.The mean (±SD) salt per 100 g of instant noodles was 4.3±1.5 g and is nearly four times higher than the salt content of food classified in Malaysia as a high salt content (>1.2 g salt per 100 g). The salt content for instant noodle per packaging ranged from 0.7 to 8.5 g. 61.7% of the instant noodles exceeded the Pacific Salt Reduction Target, 11.8% exceeded the WHO recommended daily salt intake of <5.0 per day and 5.50% exceeded Malaysia Salt Action Target. 98% of instant noodles will be considered as high salt food according to the Malaysia Guidelines.The probability of the instant noodles without mixed flavour (n=324) exceeding the Pacific Salt Reduction Target was tested on univariate and multivariate analysis. Instant noodles with soup, Tom Yam flavour, pork flavour and other flavours were found to be predictors of instant noodles with the tendency to exceed Pacific Salt Reduction Target when compared with instant noodles without mixed flavours (p<0.05).
CONCLUSION: Only 62% of instant noodles displayed the salt content on their food label. Salt content in instant noodles is very high, with 90% exceeding the daily salt intake recommended by WHO. Prompt action from regulatory and health authorities is needed to reduce the salt content in instant noodles.
METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among a sample of 416 (53% male and 47% female) undergraduate students, aged 18-26 years old, between January 6 and April 6, 2019, from colleges of Health Sciences at Jazan University in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (K.S.A). Students completed a self-administered questionnaire and recorded their measured anthropometric parameters.
RESULTS: The prevalence of overweight (20.4%) and obesity (14.9%) were relatively high among the participants. There were statistically significant associations between Body Mass Index (BMI) and the different settings of food consumption (i.e., dining on a table (or) in the Islamic way: squatting on the ground) (p<0.001)). BMI was also associated with students' dietary habits regarding consuming food, snacks, and drinking carbonated beverages while watching television (p<0.001), as well as consuming the same pattern of food/drink while watching television, playing video games on mobile phones or computers (p<0.001). Nearly most of the students were oblivious to the fact that metabolic syndrome, reproductive disorders, respiratory disorders along with liver and gallbladder diseases are some of the health risks associated with obesity.
CONCLUSION: The prevalence of obesity and overweight were reasonably high in our study sample and were affected by several factors related to students' eating behaviors and practices. This warrants the need for rigorous and frequent health education interventions on healthy eating behaviors, dietary practices, with an emphasis on the importance of adopting an active, healthy lifestyle.
DESIGN: Patients were assessed for food addiction utilizing the Malay YFAS 2.0. The participants were also assessed for eating disorder using the validated Malay Binge Eating Scale. The psychometric properties of the YFAS 2.0 were determined by analysing factor structure, overall item statistics, internal consistency and construct validity.
SETTING: Between 2017 and 2018, participants were chosen from a regional primary-care clinic in the district of Seremban, Malaysia.
PARTICIPANTS: Patients (n 382) from a regional primary-care clinic.
RESULTS: The prevalence of food addiction was 5·0%. A two-factor structure of the YFAS was confirmed as the most optimal solution for the scale via confirmatory factor analysis. In both its diagnostic and symptom count version, the YFAS 2.0 had good internal consistency (Kuder-Richardson α > 0·80 and McDonald's ω > 0·9).
CONCLUSIONS: We validated a psychometrically sound Malay version of the YFAS 2.0 in a primary-care population. Both diagnostic and symptom count versions of the scale had robust psychometric properties. The questionnaire can be used to develop health promotion strategies to detect food addiction tendencies in a general population.