Obesity and household food insecurity: Evidence from a sample of rural households in Malaysia

Abstract

Objective: The study examined nutritional outcomes related to body fat accumulation of food insecurity among women from selected rural communities in Malaysia. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Rural communities (seven villages and two palm plantations) in a district with high percentage of welfare recipients. Subjects and measurements: Malay (n = 140) and Indian (n = 60) women were interviewed and measured for demographic, socioeconomic, anthropometric, dietary and physical activity information. The women were measured for their body mass index and waist circumference (WC). Energy and nutrient intakes, food group intake and food variety score were analyzed from 24h dietary recalls and food-frequency questionnaire. Daily physical activity of the women was examined as the number of hours spent in economic, domestic, leisure and sport activities. Results: Using the Radimer/Cornell Hunger and Food Insecurity Instrument, 58% of the women reported some degree of food insecurity (household insecure 14%, adult insecure 9.5% and child hunger 34.5%). In general, food-insecure women had lower years of education, household income and income per capita, more children and mothers as housewives. More than 50% of food-insecure women were overweight and obese than women from food-secure households (38%). Similarly, more food-insecure women (32-47%) had at-risk WC (≥88cm) than food-secure women (29%). Food-insecure women spent significantly more time in domestic and leisure activities than food-secure women. Overweight and abdominal adiposity among the women were associated with a number of independent variables, such as women as housewives, women with more children, larger household size, food insecurity, shorter time spent in economic activities, longer time spent in leisure activities and lower food variety score. After adjusting for factors that are related to both adiposity and food insecurity, women from food-insecure households were significantly more likely to have at-risk WC, but not obese. Conclusion: Among this sample of rural women, the relationship between food insecurity and obesity is a complex one, which involves the interaction with other factors. Nevertheless, given that obesity and food insecurity are of public health concerns in the developing nations, the association between the two should be further investigated. © 2005 Nature Publishing Group. All rights reserved.