European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

A REVIEW ON THE CAUSE, EFFECT AND PREVENTION OF CHILDHOOD OBESITY IN MALAYSIA

Mavis Soo Zi Qing*, Gordon Soo Chien Phang, Teh Soo Pheng, Heng Wei Kee, Syed Ghouse Mohiuddin, Sohail Aziz, MZ Iqbal and M. Tahir

ABSTRACT

The National Health Morbidity Survey (NHMS 2015) shown that more than 7% of children in Malaysia under the age of 7 years old are overweight and 8% suffered acute malnutrition.[1] According to Marianne Clark-Hattingh, UNICEF Malaysia Representative, the reason was due to the changing lifestyles and dietary habits, which was a new challenge, brought up by the improving income nationhood.[1] According to Engel‟s (1977) biopsychosocial model of obesity[2], childhood obesity was caused by the increase of sedentary activities[3], lacking physical activities[4] and children‟s unhealthy eating behavior[5], which was resulted from the interaction of complex multiple factors[6] such as the biological factors[7], psychological factors[8] and the complex contextual force of social factors.[6] Too much sedentary activities such as playing computer, cell phone or watching television caused childhood obesity.[9] The findings of a cross-sectional study conducted on 760 samples of school children in urban area of Babol, Northern Iran[10] indicated that parental obesity, spending more times on television and playing computer games were evidently associated with childhood obesity. As Malaysia children were fonder of computer game, cell phone and television viewing[9], physical activities were very much abandoned.[3]

Keywords: Biopsychosocial Model, Childhood Obesity, Sedentary, Physical, Overeating, Disease, Parents? support, Breast Feeding, Biological, Psychological, Social Factors.