This study aimed to assess fruit and vegetable intake patterns and their associations with sociodemographic characteristics, anthropometric status and nutrient intake profiles among Malaysian children aged 1–6 years. Using the Malaysian dataset of South East Asian Nutrition Surveys (SEANUTS Malaysia), a total of 1307 children aged 1–6 years with complete datasets were included in this analysis. Dietary intake was assessed using age-specific, validated food frequency questionnaires. On average, Malaysian children consumed 0.91 and 1.07 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, respectively. Less than one-fifth of the children achieved the daily recommended servings of fruits (11.7%) and vegetables (15.8%). Fruit intake was associated with age, parental educational level and geographical region, and vegetable intake was associated with ethnicity and geographical region. There was little evidence of an association between fruit and vegetable intake and children’s anthropometric status, but an adequate intake of fruits and vegetables contributed significantly and differently to children’s micronutrient intake. Future nutrition interventions should focus on addressing the sociodemographic determinants and be tailored to the needs of the low consumers to more effectively promote and encourage the adequate intake of fruit and vegetables among young children.
Introduction: Weight-and-height-based anthropometric indices have long been used for obesity screening among adolescents.However, the ability of their age-and-sex-specific reference values in classifying adolescent as “obese” in different populations was not fully established. Our study aimed to validate the existing international (BMI-for-age charts from WHO, CDC, IOTF) and local cut-offs [percent weight for height (PWH)] for obesity against body fat percentage, as assessed by 4 skinfolds measurement. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional sample of 6991 adolescents aged 12 to 18 years was measured. All anthropometric measurements were compliant with the internationally accepted protocol. Obesity was defined as percentage body fat greater than or equal to 95 percentile, specific to age and sex. The validity of the existing classification criteria in detecting obesity was evaluated by comparing their respective diagnostic accuracy. Results: Both prevalence of obesity and diagnostic accuracy indices varied by the classification criteria. While all criteria generated very high specificity rates with the lowest being 95%, their sensitivity rates were low ranging from 43% to 71%. Youden’s index suggested that CDC and WHO criteria had optimal sensitivity and specificity. ROC analysis showed that overall performance could be improved by refining the existing cut-offs. Conclusions: Clinical validity of weight-and-height-based classification systems for obesity screening in Asian adolescents is poorer than expected, and this could be improved by refining the existing cut-offs. Key words: BMI-for-age references, Percentage body fat, Singapore, Validity, Weight-for height
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