Health behavior, stress and obesity among working age women in Myanmar

Aim:  This study aimed to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity and to investigate the association between socioeconomic factors, health behaviors, health literacy, knowledge, attitude, physical and mental health status, and overweight and obesity among working age women in Myanmar. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,094 women aged 18 to 59 years old who were recruited by using multistage random sampling from 12 townships out of 6 districts among three states/regions. A structured questionnaire was developed and applied to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity. Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) was performed to determine the association between dependent and independent variables after controlling the effects of covariates presenting adjusted OR and 95% confidence interval. Results: More than half of the respondents were with overweight and obesity (51.28%; 95%CI: 48.31-54.23). The multivariable analysis indicated that factors significantly associated with overweight and obesity included; aged 31-59 years (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) = 1.72, 95%CI:1.22-2.40), living without family (AOR= 2.07, 95%CI:1.20-3.57), average monthly income ≥200,000MMK (AOR= 1.38, 95%CI:1.05-1.82), parity≥1 (AOR= 1.61, 95%CI: 1.17- 2.23), high fat & protein consumption ≥5-days per week (AOR= 2.90, 95%CI:1.91-4.39), alcohol consumption (AOR= 2.53, 95%CI:1.91-3.36) and moderate-severe stress (AOR= 1.47, 95%CI:1.11-1.94). Conclusion: More than half of working age women were with overweight and obesity. Socioeconomic status, health behavior and stress are the factors behind over nutrition. The findings provide relevant evidence to develop the appropriate policies and public health interventions in order to minimize the burden of overweight and obesity. Likewise, it is anticipated that this outcome would support the prevention of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases. &nbsp

Health behavior, stress and obesity among working age women in Myanmar

  Aim:  This study aimed to determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity and to investigate the association between socioeconomic factors, health behaviors, health literacy, knowledge, attitude, physical and mental health status, and overweight and obesity among working age women in Myanmar. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,094 women aged 18 to 59 years old who were recruited by using multistage random sampling from 12 townships out of 6 districts among three states/regions. A structured questionnaire was developed and applied to assess the prevalence of overweight and obesity. Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) was performed to determine the association between dependent and independent variables after controlling the effects of covariates presenting adjusted OR and 95% confidence interval.   Results: More than half of the respondents were with overweight and obesity (51.28%; 95%CI: 48.31-54.23). The multivariable analysis indicated that factors significantly associated with overweight and obesity included; aged 31-59 years (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) = 1.72, 95%CI:1.22-2.40), living without family (AOR= 2.07, 95%CI:1.20-3.57), average monthly income ≥200,000MMK (AOR= 1.38, 95%CI:1.05-1.82), parity≥1 (AOR= 1.61, 95%CI: 1.17- 2.23), high fat & protein consumption ≥5-days per week (AOR= 2.90, 95%CI:1.91-4.39), alcohol consumption (AOR= 2.53, 95%CI:1.91-3.36) and moderate-severe stress (AOR= 1.47, 95%CI:1.11-1.94).   Conclusion: More than half of working age women were with overweight and obesity. Socioeconomic status, health behavior and stress are the factors behind over nutrition. The findings provide relevant evidence to develop the appropriate policies and public health interventions in order to minimize the burden of overweight and obesity. Likewise, it is anticipated that this outcome would support the prevention of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases.   Conflicts of interest: None declared.   Ethical Consideration: Ethical Consideration was taken from Khon Kaen University Ethics Committee in Human Research (the approval number, HE632117) and Department of Medical Research, Yangon, Myanmar (Approval number Ethics/DMR/2020/109). A coding scheme was used and every document was destroyed on completion of research. Written consent was obtained from all participants prior to participation.   Acknowledgement: The authors would like to express our sincere appreciation to all working age women in study areas for the data collection. Special thanks to the Faculty of Public Health, Khon Kaen University, Thailand for the financial and technical support

Development of health literacy assessment tool for 9–10 Years old children in Thailand

Objectives: This study developed psychometric evaluation of an instrument for measuring health literacy among children in Thailand. Study design: Development of Health Literacy Assessment Tool for 9–10 Years Old Children in Thailand involved item development. The first step was reviewing literature to pilot-test and generate an item pool. Nine expertise with different disciplines were approached to assess the initial questionnaire. For field-testing, 1650 students with same age group were randomly selected to complete the questionnaire. The psychometric properties of the developed instrument were assessed by an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Results: A total of 50-items were included in exploratory factor analysis indicating 4-dimension solution that jointly explained 36.05% of the variance observed. Confirmatory factory analysis also indicated a good fit of the data for the four-latent structure: access to information (9-items), understanding the information (6-items), appraisal (8-items), and apply the information (9-items) (Chi-square: χ2 = 1530.76), (Goodness-of-Fit Index: GFI = 0.937), (Adjust GFI: AGFI = 0.927), (Standardized root mean-square residual: SRMR = 0.025); (Root mean-square error of Approximation: RMSEA = 0.040), (Comparative-fit-Index: CFI = 0.903) and (Normed-fit-index: NFI = 0.910). Additional analysis for internal consistency observed satisfactory results with overall Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.902. The Item-Total Correlation (ITC) was 0.300 (range:0.319 to 0.518) and high validation with value of CVI of 0.87. Conclusions: Health Literacy Assessment Tool for 9–10 Years Old children (31-item) showed psychometric properties, high validityy and was reliable. Therefore, it is considered as an effective tool to measure the Health Literacy for 9–10 years old children in Thailand