Objectives

  To obtain information regarding the current state of obesity and its underlying lifestyle habits and environment in Bangkok.

Methods

  A cross-sectional study was conducted in two study sites, a university and a community health center in Pyatai district in Bangkok. By opportunity sampling, a total of 45 adults (10 males and 35 females, aged 20 to 84 years) participated.

  Anthropometric measurements were taken, and a one to one interview was conducted with a questionnaire to obtain lifestyle behavior data, and 11-item Food Diversity Score Kyoto (FDSK-11) was used to obtain dietary diversity.

Results

  The present study showed a high mean BMI (26.98) among participants in both study sites, and the prevalence of overweight and obesity were higher than the results seen in previous studies. Higher food diversity was significantly related to the frequency of eating out, and that of exercise. Moreover, participants who had higher food diversity tended to have higher BMI.

Conclusion

  The present study indicated that high prevalence of overweight and obesity in both sexes in both study sites. According to the previous study, the more variety of food they took, the less BMI they had. However, the present study showed the opposite. Generally having a variety of food is recommended as healthy dietary habit, however unless we care about the balance and the amount, having too much energy-dense food may contribute to overweight and obesity. Rapid economic growth and urbanization changed people’s lifestyles and eating habits. Current typical diet consists of animal meat and rice rather than the vegetables and rice which Thai people took past. Strategies to give people nutritional education seem to be needed.

BACKGROUNDFor decades, birth weight doubling time (BWDT) has been used as an indicator for the assessment of physical growth of infants. However, the relevant data in the literature were obtained mainly from western subjects and no similar studies have been carried out for South EastAsian or otherAsian countries.

OBJECTIVETo determine BWDT and related variables forThai infants.

METHODSA study was conducted from January to August 1999 at the well baby clinic of Bamrasnaradura Hospital. Apparently normal infants (335) with birth weight between 2,500 and 4,000 grams were recruited and followed up until they had doubled their birth weights. Data on infant birth weight, sex, mother education, occupation, income and feeding practices were collected.

RESULTSThe mean BWDT was 114 days which was slightly less than that given in previous reports. Male infants doubled their birth weights in less time (104 days) than females (123 days) and the difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001). Infants with lower birth weights doubled their birth weights earlier than those with higher birth weights (p < 0.001). Infants who were not given complementary food had shorter BWDT than those who were (p < 0.001), but we could not demonstrate any significant association between BWDT and type of food, mother's education or family income (p > 0.05). Factors that did affect BWDT were birth weight, sex, daily weight gain and use of complementary food. However, by multivariate analysis only birth weight and daily weight gain showed significant association with BWDT (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONBoth prenatal and postnatal factors may affect BWDT significantly.

Analysis of Variance ; Birth Weight ; Female ; Humans ; Infant, Newborn ; Male ; Multivariate Analysis ; Risk Factors ; Thailand ; Time Factors ; Weight Gain