Health perception and quality of life among overweight rural housewives in Kelantan, Malaysia

Abstract

This study attempted to map the extend of overweight and obesity among rural housewives in the State of Kelantan, Malaysia, and at the same time solicits people's perception about obesity based on their cultural and social context. Obesity today is a widespread health problem which affect millions of people world wide irrespective of age, sex, ethnic group, social status or place of residence (developed or developing countries). Malaysia is not spared from the problem of obesity. The national survey in 1996 reported that the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults age over 20 years were 26.5% (male=24.1 %, female=29.0%) and 5.8% (male=4.0%, female=7.6%), respectively (Nishida & Mucavele, 2005). It has been almost 1 O years since the last national survey, and the prevalence of obesity is on the increase as reported by pockets of independent studies and the media.The aim of this study is to map out the prevalence and extent of obesity and overweight among housewives in the rural areas of Malaysia and also to evaluate their quality of life. Why the housewives is selected is because they are a group of people who performed housework and at the same time the food preparer in the family. lnvesitigating into the form of their daily physical activities and food intake will provide us a profile and risk factors associated with their body weight changes.