Hajj and ‘Umrah pilgrimage are a huge congregation performed by Muslims in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The pilgrimage causes overcrowding and congestion that can lead to a high risk of health problems, especially when pilgrims have health problems. The purpose of this study is to assess the reliability of EQ-5D as a measuring tool to capture the health status of the pilgrims. Data collection was done during Ramadhan’s ‘Umrah in 2014. In this cross-sectional study, a total of 300 self-administered questionnaires attached with the EQ-5D-5L questions were distributed to Malaysian ‘Umrah pilgrims in Makkah and willing to participate in the study. The outcomes from the questionnaires and EQ-5D-5L were systematically analysed by using the SPSS software. The response rate was 64%, involved female (53%) and male (47%) respondents with the mean age of 55 years old. Hypertension (21.5%) and diabetes (16.2%) were the commonest underlying health problems suffered by the respondents in this study. Based on the EQ-5D outcomes, 53.3% of the respondents had no problem in their movement. However, the mean of EQ-VAS (visual analogue scale) presented 83 out of 100 scaling point, which means they might have problems in their health status. In addition, this study revealed, respondents with underlying illnesses had difficulty in some dimensions in EQ-5D. Hypertension was identified as the commonest underlying disease amongst the pilgrims. A contradicted outcome from the objective and subjective measuring scales of EQ-5D and EQ-VAS respectively; presented its sensitivity of EuroQol as a measuring tool for the quality of life among pilgrims living within such congestion

Introduction: Meal patterns have received little attention in nutrition studies. The aim of this study is to present the findings on general meal patterns of Malaysian adults. Methods: The Malaysian Adults Nutrition Survey (MANS), carried out in 2002 and 2003, involved 6,928 adults selected by stratified random sampling from all households by zone in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak. Results: In general, the results showed that most respondents (74.16%) ate three meals per day; 89.20% of the respondents consumed breakfast, while 88.57% consumed lunch and 91.97% consumed dinner with no significant difference in terms of sex. In Peninsular Malaysia, the Northern Zone had the highest number of people consuming breakfast compared to other zones. Meanwhile, the population in Sarawak had the largest proportion of people consuming lunch and dinner, but the smallest proportion of people consuming breakfast. A significantly higher number of the rural population consumed breakfast and lunch than urbanites; however there was no significant difference in dinner consumption. Generally, breakfast consumption increased with age whereby significant difference existed between the 18 to 19 years age group and the age group of 30 years and older. Lunch intake among the age groups showed no significant difference. In contrast, dinner consumption was significantly lower among the 18 to 19 years age group compared to all other age groups. Comparison among the ethnic groups showed that the Indian population had the lowest percentage of having breakfast and lunch while the Orang Asli had the lowest percentage of consuming dinner. However, the Orang Asli recorded the highest percentage for taking breakfast and lunch while the Chinese had the highest percentage of taking dinner. Conclusion: Considering that Malaysian adults consumed their conventional breakfast, lunch and dinner, these findings indicatethat Malaysians are maintaining their traditional meal patterns.