Supersize me

A fortnight ago, I watched this Academy Award-nominated documentary, SuperSize Me, in which a healthy 32-year old man went on a 30-day McDonald binge to see if such diet would be detrimental to health. The documentary was largely inspired by a lawsuit from 2 obese teenage girls against McDonald for causing their obesity problem. More info at IMDB and wikipedia. The movie got me wondering about the prevalence of obesity and cardiovascular (CVS) disease in Malaysia. Here is what I found:

1. In 2005, CVS disease is the 4th (7.07%, 130,965 cases) most common reason for hospitalisation. It is 2nd (14.31%, 5668 cases) most common cause of death in hospitals. [1]
2. An observational study published in 2007 found that overall national prevalence of obesity among Malaysians aged 15 years old and above was 11.7% (95% CI = 11.1 - 12.4%). The prevalence of obesity was significantly higher in females (13.8%) as compared to 9.6% in males (p<>= 18 years old has markedly increased by 280% since the last National Health and Morbidity Survey in 1996. [2]
3. A review in 2002 found that the prevalence of obesity was clearly greater in women than in men. In women, obesity rates were higher in Indian and Malay women than in Chinese women, while in men the Chinese recorded the highest obesity prevalence followed by the Malay and Indians. Studies on normal healthy subjects indicated that the energy intake of Indians was significantly lower than that of other ethnic groups. In women, Malays recorded a significantly higher energy intake than the other groups. Urban male subjects consumed significantly more energy than their rural counterparts, but this was not the case in women. In both men and women, fat intakes (%) were significantly higher in Chinese and urban subjects. Men were moderately active with the exception of the Dayaks. Chinese women were considerably less active than Chinese men. Chinese and Dayak women were less active than Malay and Indian women. The escalation of obesity, once thought to be an urban phenomenon, has now spread to the rural population at an alarming rate. [3]

There's more papers out there but I couldn't be bothered reading more. Conclusion: Obesity and CVS is a problem in Malaysia. Duh.

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[1] MOH (2006) Health Facts 2005 pamphlet
[2]Rampal L, Rampal S, Khor GL et al (2007) A national study on the prevalence of obesity among 16,127 Malaysians Asia Pac J Clin Nutr 2007;16(3):561-3
[3] Ismail MN, Chee SS, Nawawi H, Yusoff K, Lim TO, James WP (2002) Obesity in Malaysia Obes Rev 2002 Aug ;3(3):203-8