Table 1.
Socio-demographic characteristics of the subjects
| Socio-demographic Variables | Malaysian (n=2,058) |
Chinese (n=394) |
Indian (n=223) |
Overall Total (n=2,675) |
*p |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age (year±SD) | 42.7±16.2a | 48.1±16.3b | 41.5±15.1a | 43.4±16.2 | 0.000 |
| Gender (%) | |||||
| Male | 44.5 | 45.9 | 37.4 | 44.2 | – |
| Female | 55.4 | 54.1 | 62.6 | 55.7 | |
| Body weight (kg±IQR) | 62.0±17.9 | 60.5±16.8 | 63.9±20.0 | 62.0±17.5 | **0.001 |
| Height (cm±SD) | 158.0±8.7a | 160.2±9.1b | 160.3±9.5b | 158.5±8.8 | 0.000 |
| BMI (±SD) | 25.6±5.5a | 24.4±4.9b | 26.4±6.1c | 25.4±5.5 | 0.000 |
| Household number (±SD) | 5.2±2.3a | 4.6±2.4b | 4.9±2.1c | 5.1±2.3 | 0.000 |
| Marital status (%) | |||||
| Single | 21.1 | 19.1 | 19.5 | 20.6 | |
| Married | 71.5 | 73.4 | 71.4 | 71.9 | – |
| Widowed/divorced | 7.4 | 7.5 | 9.1 | 7.5 | |
| Residential region (%) | |||||
| North | 30.4 | 36.9 | 50.7 | 33.0 | |
| Middle | 25.1 | 17.0 | 39.5 | 25.2 | |
| South | 16.0 | 36.6 | 6.3 | 18.2 | |
| East | 28.6 | 9.4 | 3.6 | 23.7 | – |
| Years of education (year±SD) | 9.1±3.9a | 8.4±4.1b | 9.1±3.7a | 9.0±3.9 | 0.004 |
IQR is the interquartile range. SD is the standard deviation.
*
Significant difference (p<0.05) between different ethnics was evaluated using a one-way ANOVA. Equal variance was assumed using LSD.
**
KW A Kruskal–Wallis U test was applied (χ2=13.956).
Different alphabets within the same row indicate significant difference (p<0.05).