Poor Diet Quality among Overweight/Obese (OW/OB) Young Adults in Kiang Valley, Malaysia: A Case-control Study

This study aimed to determine the differences in dietary intake and quality between normal-weight (NW) and overweight/obese (OW/OB) young adults in Kiang Valley, Malaysia. A case-control study was conducted among 294 private universities students in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Respondents completed a set of questionnaire and 3 days 24-hr dietary recall. Weight, height, body fat percentage (%BF), visceral fat, and waist circumference of respondents were measured. Dietary intake of respondents was analyzed and their diet quality was evaluated using a healthy eating index (HEI) scale. Findings displayed OW/OB group had significantly higher energy, macronutrient, sugar, saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium intake (p < 0.001) than NW group. The total HEI score was significantly lower in OW/OB group [45.14 (11.13)] than NW group [51.43 (11.61)]. This was affected by component scores of percentages (%) of energy from fat (p < 0.001) and saturated fat (p = 0.023), cholesterol and sodium intake (p < 0.001) with OW/OB had significantly lower score than NW group. However, OW/OB group achieved a significantly higher component score for cereals (p < 0.001) and meat food groups (p = 0.005) than NW group. HEI analysis also displayed both groups achieved low component scores for fruits, vegetables, milk, and food variety. Although OW/OB group had poorer diet quality than NW group, both groups had low consumption of fruits, vegetables, milk, and less varied diet. Therefore, there had low consumption of fruits, vegetables, milk, and less varied diet. Therefore, there is a need for educational campaigns on food groups' diversification especially in increasing nutrient-dense food in their diet to increase awareness in healthy eating among young adults.