Food security and BMI status among adolescents in Kuantan, Pahang

• Main Authors: Mohd Abu Bakar, Wan Azdie, Yahya, Noor Atirah, Sidek, Suriati, Ab Ghalib, Halimatun Saadiah, Mat Ya, Roselawati, Abdul Rahman, Rozlin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Karger Publishers 2019
• Subjects: RA Public aspects of medicine; TX341 Nutrition. Foods and food supply
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/74003/1/74003_Food%20security%20and%20BMI%20status%20among%20adolescents_new.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/74003/; https://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/501751
• Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia

Background/Aims: Food security can be defined as the availability of and accessibility to food, acquired in an acceptable means at any given time and place in a way that could maintain health and wellbeing. This study aimed to identify the food security status and the nutritional status of adolescents and to determine the associated factors. Methods: Five hundred and thirty secondary school students from district of Kuantan, Malaysia were measured for their weights and heights. A set of questionnaire containing two sections was used to obtain the sociodemographic data and food security information. The Radimer/Cornell Instrument (Malay version) was used to capture the severity of food insecurity. Results: The findings demonstrated that 23.4% of the respondents were food secure and 76.6% were food insecure, which were categorized into household food insecurity (31.5%), individual food insecurity (7.6%) and child hunger (37.5%). Furthermore, 60% have normal BMI-for-age, 9.2% were underweight, while 16.6% and 14.2% were overweight and obese. The prevalence of stunting was 11.7% while others were categorized as normal in terms of height-for-age z-score. Respondents with working mothers were found to be less likely to experience food insecurity compared to those with mothers who were not working (AOR 0.59; 95% CI: 0.34–0.97; p = 0.037). Conclusion: The high prevalence of food insecurity and increasing overweight and obesity incidents are a concern within this area. While food security element should be included in any intervention program addressing overweight and obesity, further research is needed to study the complex relationship between socio-demographic factors, food security and nutritional status.