TRENDS IN OBESITY AND ABDOMINAL OBESITY AMONG MALAYSIAN ADULTS: FINDINGS FROM THE NATIONAL HEALTH AND MORBIDITY SURVEYS OF 2006, 2011 AND 2015

The prevalence of obesity has increased dramatically and is now a global public health concern. This study examined trends in mean body mass index (BMI), mean waist circumference (WC) and prevalence of overweight, obesity and abdominal obesity (AO) among Malaysian adults obtained from the National Health and Morbidity Surveys (NHMS) in 2006, 2011 and 2015. These cross-sectional population based survey applied a two-stage stratified sampling design provided data on household members aged 18 years and above. Face-toface interviewed and anthropometric measurements, including weight, height and waist circumference (WC) were collected. Age-adjusted mean BMI is significantly increased from 24.6 kg / m(2) in 2006 to 25.7 kg / m(2) in 2015 (p <0.001), while age-adjusted mean WC increased from 81.9 cm to 85.7 cm during the same period of time. Prevalence of overweight significantly increases from 28.3% to 31.3% (p <0.001), that of obesity from 13.2% to 19.1% (p <0.001) and that of AO, the largest, from 39.1% to 51.0% (p <0.001). The prevalence of obesity and, in particular, abdominal obesity among Malaysian adults has increased in all age groups over the past 10 years. Thus, there is an urgent need to determine the factors associated with obesity and abdominal obesity towards developing a national program to prevent deleterious obesity-related health outcomes.