Healthy sleep behaviour as weight loss strategy in managing obesity among women in Malaysia : a review

The development of overweight and obesity among women in Malaysia has shown an increasing trend between the year 2003 and 2014 base on the Malaysian Adult Nutrition Survey report in 2015. The prevalence of obesity was significantly higher in women by 22.9% compared to men 14.5%. There are many factors contributing to the upsurge of obesity among women and among most, sleep disorders has been the emerging issue which has longed been discussed. Certain important factors affecting women related to sleep quality such as stress, insomnia, depression and some biological conditions like menopause, menstrual cycle and pregnancy can affect sleep quality. This paper serves to review how lack of sleep quality is associated to the development of obesity and why healthy sleep behaviour could aid to weight loss. Public health approaches to reducing the burden of obesity must consider equipping the women in managing their sleep related issues and how they are able to control the food consumption and lifestyle of the family. Thus, promoting healthy sleep behaviour among women emphasized on the importance of deriving sleep quality through three important factors that is early bed time, sleep in the dark and sleep duration would be a contributing factor in managing obesity through healthy lifestyle changes

The effects of healthy sleep campaign towards the intention to practice healthy sleep behaviour in managing obesity among Malay women

In today’s climate, obesity management should be extended beyond the conventional manner of the sole emphasis on diet and exercise. The newly-emerging issues of sleep in the current obesity prevalence would benefit from being highlighted as an important indicator in managing the medical condition via lifestyle changes. Therefore, this called for the positioning of sleep in a form of a campaign to create awareness regarding the gravity behind healthy sleep. With that mentioned, this study looked into the effect of Healthy Sleep Campaign towards the intention to practice healthy sleep behaviour in order to lose weight, using the Theory of Planned Behaviour. The one-time campaign was executed with the participation of 400 obese Malay women aged between 18 and 55 years old in the state of Melaka, where they were asked to complete a survey form. Such step appeared to be integral in measuring whether the knowledge gained from the campaign was indeed capable of influencing their respective intentions to perform healthy sleep behaviour in achieving weight loss. Subsequent statistical analysis was undertaken for both the measurement and structural models respectively using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM). Based on the analysis, the Healthy Sleep Campaign was found to pose a significantly direct influence on all predictors in the study. Furthermore, it was also capable of moderating the relationship between the predictors towards the intention to practice healthy sleep behaviour. However, the study was primarily limited by the measurement, as it was focused on the intention to perform healthy sleep behaviours instead of looking into the actual behavioural changes themselves. Nevertheless, the results indicated important implications regarding the possible planning and implementation of healthy sleep campaign in a structured manner alongside lifestyle practices in managing obesity beyond diet and exercising. Moreover, suggestions for future research were also made specifically in measuring behavioural changes towards healthy sleep as a new weight loss factor, as well as exploring the impacts of healthy sleep behaviour in managing obesity

Food consumption pattern and intention to practice healthy sleep among Malay obese women in Melaka, Malaysia

Obesity management should be extended beyond the conventional manner that solely emphasizes on diet and exercise. Nevertheless, the increasing prevalence of obesity despite the current strategies needs to improvise and consider healthy sleep as one of the strategy as sleep has been an emerging issue in obesity yet it has been absent in Malaysia. The objective of the present study is to examine the current food consumption pattern and the intention to practice healthy sleep among obese Malay women in the state of Melaka. This study adopted the Theory of Planned Behavior to investigate the effect of Healthy Sleep Awareness on the intention to practice healthy sleep in an attempt to lose weight. The one-time program was conducted among 368 obese Malay women aged between 18 and 55 years old in the state of Melaka, in which they were asked to complete a survey form. This step appeared to be integral in measuring the current food pattern and healthy sleep as well as to measure whether the knowledge gained from the program is capable of influencing their intentions to practice healthy sleep in achieving weight loss. The analysis was conducted using the Partial Least Square Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) for both the measurement and structural models. Overall results on the current food consumption pattern and healthy sleep showed that majority of the respondents has similarity in consuming confectionary food with the highest percentage on snacking (84%) while at the same time practicing late time in bed (99%) most of the nights. There was no significant relationship between Attitude and Subjective Norms on the intention to practice healthy sleep, unlike Perceived Behavior Control that was found to be moderately significant. Nevertheless, Healthy Sleep Awareness was found to pose significant direct influence on all the predictors in the study and capable of moderating the relationship between the predictors in regards to the intention to practice healthy sleep. Age was found to positively influenced Attitude and Perceived Behavior Control on the intention to practice healthy sleep except for Subjective Norms. Nevertheless, the results of the study managed to present the important implications regarding the possible planning and implementation of Healthy Sleep Awareness in a structured manner alongside the lifestyle practices in managing obesity apart from only focusing on diet and exercising. Therefore, it is suggested for future research to conduct a study that measures explicitly behavioral changes concerning practice healthy sleep that is considered as a new weight loss factor as well as exploring the impacts of healthy sleep in managing obesity