Objective: The aim of this study was to explore the influence of physical activity and media viewing on the occurrence of childhood obesity in Malaysia.Methods: A 42-item validated questionnaire in the Malay and English language, containing Likert scale close-ended questions was used to explore the degree of physical activity practiced by families as well as trends on media viewing restrictions among parents in 5 selected states of Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 1200 self-administered questionnaires were sent out to schools in rural and urban areas of the respective 5 states and body mass index (BMI) for children was measured using the WHO 2007 reference standards. A total of 802 completed and usable questionnaires were obtained yielding a response rate of 66.6%. Chi-square and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results.Results: The findings revealed that while children may have agreed limits on media viewing (television/computer/video games), as the child's BMI increased the rate of agreed limits decreased. However, the enforcement of these limits was not consistent. Interestingly, 70% of the parents who did not enforce restrictions on media viewing were also obese themselves. In terms of physical activity, this was far lower among obese and severe obese children and family activities involving physical activity was scarce with a rate of 25%.Conclusion: The study affirms the fact that Malaysia needs to promote engagement in physical activity as a national policy and shows that the importance of enforcing media viewing restrictions should be highlighted to the community at large
