Overweight and obesity have become a serious health issue in worldwide and Malaysia is no exception. In view that obesity is one of the leading causes of non-communicable diseases, this systematic review aimed to explore whether Malaysian are getting fatter (overweight or obesity) and rounder (abdominal obesity). Searches of the published literature were conducted using 3 databases including EMBASE, MEDLINE, and PubMed. These were limited to cross-sectional or cohort studies in Malaysia. The databases provided the prevalence of overweight, obesity, and abdominal obesity among 15 years old and above Malaysian population from 2009 to 2015. In total, 47 articles were included in this review. Findings exhibit that the prevalence rates of overweight, obesity, and abdominal obesity range from 9.5% to 43.5%, 1.77% to 26.4% and 11.4% to 57.4%, respectively. Overweight is more predominant among males. However, obesity and abdominal obesity are more predominant among females. This means that more females are getting fatter and “rounder” as compared to males in Malaysia. The findings imply a lack of intervention programmes based on proper randomized controlled trials which are needed to adequately address the problem of obesity in Malaysia.
Overweight ; Obesity

A cross study on 305 children selected randomly and direct interviewing their parents. The results showed that: overall percentage of obesity was 3.49%, in kindergarten children was 4.29%, in primary school children was 2.7%. Percentage of malnutrition in underweight was 9.47% and the rate of stunting and wasting was 8.93% and 4.29% respectively. High education level in parents of obese children was 14.8% and in parents of normal children was 40.9%. Average body-weight of parents of obese children was higher than that of parents of control children. Obese children consumed much more food every day than normal children.
Overweight ; Obesity ; Child

The study was carried out in Ba Dinh district of Ha Noi. The results of the study on 724 women aged 20 to 59 years old showed that the prevalence of overweight was rather high: 16.6% (pre-obesity: 15.5% and obesity grade 1: 1.1%). The prevalence of overweight is increased with increasing age, the highest prevalence was observed among women 50-59 years old (19.9%). The percentages of women with the waist-hip ratio >0.85 was 33.6%; and the waist circumference 80cm was 35.3% and the percentage of body fat >30% was very high 45.8%.
Overweight ; Obesity ; Women

Studying on 240 women from 20-59 years old showed that the habits of consuming energy-rich foods such as fat, sugar were risk factors of overweight and obesity. Moreover, the time set aside for light activities (e.g., watching television) in the overweight group was significantly higher than that in the normal group. Risks of overweight also increased in subjects whose family members were overweight and obese. The overweight group had the rate of hypertension is higher than the normal group. The prevalence of women who had cholesterol >5.2 mmol/l was 17.5% and glucose in blood >7.0 mmol/l was 8.2%.
Overweight ; Obesity ; Hypertension ; Women

Among military officials aged > 30 years in air force and air defence army, the rate of overweight and obesity are high relatively according to IDI and WPRO 2000 classification with a general overweight of 35.2%, of them pre-obesity 24.2%, 1st grade obesity 11%, 2nd grade 0.1%. According to WHO 1998, classification 11%, pre-obesity 10.9%, 1st grade obesity 0.21% and 2nd grade none; especially in fly-troop, the rate is very high 67.5% (according to IDI and WPRO 2000) and 20% (according to WHO 1998). Energy intake is 4645-5162 Kcalo/capita daily and P:L:G ratio is 16:22:62
Overweight ; Obesity ; Diseases

A cross sectional study was performed from January to May 2002 on 6726 children of 7-12 years old (3485 males and 3244 females) at 14 primary schools of 7 districs of Hanoi city. Results found that: the prevalence of 7.9% in general, 8.5% in male and 7.2% in female with a trend of increase in the past years. These prevalence is higher in Central districts than in new established districts. In the special schools, the prevalence is 10.3%, 2 times higher than normal school 4.8%
Overweight ; Obesity ; Child

A cross-sectional study was carried out on 2466 children aged 4-6, and their parents or nursing subjects in Hanoi urban districts from March to August 2002. Results showed that 4.9% of children, the most in Central districts (Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh, Hai Ba Trung) had overweight. The overweight ratio at the age of 4, 5, 6 was 4.2%, 4.5%, 6.1% respectively; in boy was 6.1% and girls was 3.8%, it trends to increase with time and urban regions. Concerning the age, the ratio of quick increase of weight before the first age is 36.6%. 2nd-3rd age was 23.8%, 4th-5th age 18.8%. The moderate and heavy overweight ratio is 2.2%, the lowest is 1.1% in 4 years old of age and the highest is 3.6% in 6 years old of age. The P:L:G ratio is 15:23:62. There is an obvious improvement in the nutrions regime, animal protein ratio is 57.3% and vegetable lipid 26.3%
Overweight ; Obesity ; Food

1528 subjects, who visited Huu Nghi Hospital on April, May, June 2002 (1160 males and 368 females) were studied. Average weight in male is 60kg, female 52kg and average height 1.60m and 1.52m respectively. Over weight incidence increased quickly, pre-obesis 24.5% and obesis of 1 grade 1.2%. Average abdomen circumference and abdomen/buttor circumference ratio are higher in male than in female. CT > 6.5 mmol subjects accounted for 27.7%, TG > 2.26mmol: 43.7%, glucose > 11.1mmol/l: 10.5% and blood uric level > 400 micromol/ml: 34.5%
Overweight ; obesity ; Biochemistry

The methods of nutritional assessment (over-weight and obesity on children of < 10 years old recommended as follows: the indicator of weight for height W/H > + 2SD or +2 Z-scores) compared with NCHS reference can be used for the evaluation of over-weight and obesity of children. However the assessment of obesity should be combined with the indicator of W/H > +2SD and the body fat percentage or skin fold thickness
Child ; Nutritional Status ; Overweight

The study performed on 3647 primary school pupils male (51.4%) and female (48.6%) in Dong Da district, Hanoi city. The results showed an incidence of overweight of 9.9%, increasing with age, with a higher rate in male than female subjects. Overweight children consumed more frequently high energy foods (butter, fat, fatty meat and fried dishes) in compare with normal children. Overweight children had a habit of taking more meals per day than normal children and taking added meals. Overweight children spent more time for sedentary activities than normal children, especially for watching television and playing electronic games
Food ; Overweight ; Child