Nutritional status of children below five years in Malaysia: anthropometric analyses from the third National Health and Morbidity survey III (NHMS, 2006)
The Third National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS III) was conducted in 2006 on a nationally representative sample of population in Malaysia. Over 21,000 children aged 0-17.9 years were measured for body weight and stature according to the protocol of the World Health Organization. This article d...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nutrition Society of Malaysia
2009
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| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13125/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13125/1/Nutritional%20status%20of%20children%20below%20five%20years%20in%20Malaysia%20anthropometric%20analyses%20from%20the%20third%20National%20Health%20and%20Morbidity%20survey%20III%20%28NHMS%2C%202006%29.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848842026171236352 |
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| author | Khor, Geok Lin Mohamad Nor, Noor Safiza Ab Rahman, Jamalludin Haniff, Jamaiyah Appannah, Geeta Kee, Chee Cheong Rasat, Rahmah Wong, Alan N. F. Shahar, Suzana Zainuddin, Ahmad Ali Abd Talib, Ruzita Yusoff, Ahmad Fauzi |
| author_facet | Khor, Geok Lin Mohamad Nor, Noor Safiza Ab Rahman, Jamalludin Haniff, Jamaiyah Appannah, Geeta Kee, Chee Cheong Rasat, Rahmah Wong, Alan N. F. Shahar, Suzana Zainuddin, Ahmad Ali Abd Talib, Ruzita Yusoff, Ahmad Fauzi |
| author_sort | Khor, Geok Lin |
| building | UPM Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The Third National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS III) was conducted in 2006 on a nationally representative sample of population in Malaysia. Over 21,000 children aged 0-17.9 years were measured for body weight and stature according to the protocol of the World Health Organization. This article describes the nutritional status of children aged 0-59.9 months. Mean z score for weight-for-age (WAZ), height-for-age (HAZ) and BMI-for-age were compared with the z-scores tables of the WHO standards. The overall prevalence of underweight and stunting of the children were 12.9% and 17.2% respectively. These levels included 2.4% severe underweight and 6.0% severe stunting. In terms of z scores, the age group of 0-5.9 months showed the best nutritional status with mean WAZ of-0.33 (95%CI:-0.52, 0.15) and-0.40 (-0.57, 0.24) for boys and girls respectively, while mean HAZ was 0.64 (0.38, 0.89) for boys and 0.76 (0.54, 0.98) for girls. Mean HAZ and WAZ status was least satisfactory after about 6 months, suggesting a faltering in growth rate at an age that coincides with dependence on complementary feeding. Prevalence of overweight based on BMI-for-age for the sexes combined was 6.4%, while that based on WAZ was 3.4%. The NHMS III results indicate that Malaysian children have better nutritional status compared to children under 5 years in neighbouring countries. In order to meet the targets set in the National Plan of Nutrition (2006-2015), more effective intervention programmes are needed to accelerate the reduction of underweight and stunting, and to arrest the rise of overweight in young children. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-15T07:52:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | upm-13125 |
| institution | Universiti Putra Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-15T07:52:35Z |
| publishDate | 2009 |
| publisher | Nutrition Society of Malaysia |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | upm-131252015-10-09T07:12:31Z http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13125/ Nutritional status of children below five years in Malaysia: anthropometric analyses from the third National Health and Morbidity survey III (NHMS, 2006) Khor, Geok Lin Mohamad Nor, Noor Safiza Ab Rahman, Jamalludin Haniff, Jamaiyah Appannah, Geeta Kee, Chee Cheong Rasat, Rahmah Wong, Alan N. F. Shahar, Suzana Zainuddin, Ahmad Ali Abd Talib, Ruzita Yusoff, Ahmad Fauzi The Third National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS III) was conducted in 2006 on a nationally representative sample of population in Malaysia. Over 21,000 children aged 0-17.9 years were measured for body weight and stature according to the protocol of the World Health Organization. This article describes the nutritional status of children aged 0-59.9 months. Mean z score for weight-for-age (WAZ), height-for-age (HAZ) and BMI-for-age were compared with the z-scores tables of the WHO standards. The overall prevalence of underweight and stunting of the children were 12.9% and 17.2% respectively. These levels included 2.4% severe underweight and 6.0% severe stunting. In terms of z scores, the age group of 0-5.9 months showed the best nutritional status with mean WAZ of-0.33 (95%CI:-0.52, 0.15) and-0.40 (-0.57, 0.24) for boys and girls respectively, while mean HAZ was 0.64 (0.38, 0.89) for boys and 0.76 (0.54, 0.98) for girls. Mean HAZ and WAZ status was least satisfactory after about 6 months, suggesting a faltering in growth rate at an age that coincides with dependence on complementary feeding. Prevalence of overweight based on BMI-for-age for the sexes combined was 6.4%, while that based on WAZ was 3.4%. The NHMS III results indicate that Malaysian children have better nutritional status compared to children under 5 years in neighbouring countries. In order to meet the targets set in the National Plan of Nutrition (2006-2015), more effective intervention programmes are needed to accelerate the reduction of underweight and stunting, and to arrest the rise of overweight in young children. Nutrition Society of Malaysia 2009 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13125/1/Nutritional%20status%20of%20children%20below%20five%20years%20in%20Malaysia%20anthropometric%20analyses%20from%20the%20third%20National%20Health%20and%20Morbidity%20survey%20III%20%28NHMS%2C%202006%29.pdf Khor, Geok Lin and Mohamad Nor, Noor Safiza and Ab Rahman, Jamalludin and Haniff, Jamaiyah and Appannah, Geeta and Kee, Chee Cheong and Rasat, Rahmah and Wong, Alan N. F. and Shahar, Suzana and Zainuddin, Ahmad Ali and Abd Talib, Ruzita and Yusoff, Ahmad Fauzi (2009) Nutritional status of children below five years in Malaysia: anthropometric analyses from the third National Health and Morbidity survey III (NHMS, 2006). Malaysian Journal of Nutrition, 15 (2). pp. 121-136. ISSN 1394-035X http://nutriweb.org.my/publications/mjn0015_2/default.php |
| spellingShingle | Khor, Geok Lin Mohamad Nor, Noor Safiza Ab Rahman, Jamalludin Haniff, Jamaiyah Appannah, Geeta Kee, Chee Cheong Rasat, Rahmah Wong, Alan N. F. Shahar, Suzana Zainuddin, Ahmad Ali Abd Talib, Ruzita Yusoff, Ahmad Fauzi Nutritional status of children below five years in Malaysia: anthropometric analyses from the third National Health and Morbidity survey III (NHMS, 2006) |
| title | Nutritional status of children below five years in Malaysia: anthropometric analyses from the third National Health and Morbidity survey III (NHMS, 2006) |
| title_full | Nutritional status of children below five years in Malaysia: anthropometric analyses from the third National Health and Morbidity survey III (NHMS, 2006) |
| title_fullStr | Nutritional status of children below five years in Malaysia: anthropometric analyses from the third National Health and Morbidity survey III (NHMS, 2006) |
| title_full_unstemmed | Nutritional status of children below five years in Malaysia: anthropometric analyses from the third National Health and Morbidity survey III (NHMS, 2006) |
| title_short | Nutritional status of children below five years in Malaysia: anthropometric analyses from the third National Health and Morbidity survey III (NHMS, 2006) |
| title_sort | nutritional status of children below five years in malaysia: anthropometric analyses from the third national health and morbidity survey iii (nhms, 2006) |
| url | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13125/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13125/ http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/13125/1/Nutritional%20status%20of%20children%20below%20five%20years%20in%20Malaysia%20anthropometric%20analyses%20from%20the%20third%20National%20Health%20and%20Morbidity%20survey%20III%20%28NHMS%2C%202006%29.pdf |