Table 2.
Proportion of children obese, by child or parental characteristic (N = 4806)
| Child |
Mother |
Father |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Child or parental characteristic | Obese | (n, %) | P | Obese | (n, %) | P | Obese | (n, %) | P |
| N | 689 | (14.3) | |||||||
| Sex | |||||||||
| Male | 400 | (16.9) | |||||||
| Female | 289 | (17.8) | <0.001 | ||||||
| Age category, years | |||||||||
| 5–9 | 222 | (18.9) | |||||||
| 10–14 | 288 | (15.7) | |||||||
| 15–19 | 179 | (10.0) | <0.001 | ||||||
| Ethnicity | |||||||||
| Malay | 485 | (14.9) | |||||||
| Indian | 61 | (13.9) | |||||||
| Chinese | 119 | (12.6) | |||||||
| Bumiputera/Orang Asli | 16 | (18.6) | |||||||
| Other | 6 | (18.8) | 0.227 | ||||||
| Missing | 2 | (11.1) | |||||||
| Birth order | |||||||||
| 1 | 299 | (14.6) | |||||||
| 2 | 200 | (13.6) | |||||||
| 3 | 120 | (15.2) | |||||||
| 4+ | 70 | (14.1) | 0.763 | ||||||
| Overweight or obese | |||||||||
| No | 165 | (9.3) | 158 | (10.8) | |||||
| Yes | 226 | (13.8) | <0.001 | 195 | (14.2) | 0.001 | |||
| Obese | |||||||||
| No | 344 | (11.8) | 353 | (12.4) | |||||
| Yes | 236 | (20.7) | <0.001 | 114 | (19.8) | <0.001 | |||
| Centrally obese | |||||||||
| No | 95 | (8.8) | 228 | (12.2) | |||||
| Yes | 467 | (16.1) | <0.001 | 227 | (15.6) | 0.005 | |||
| Systolic hypertension | |||||||||
| No | 399 | (13.6) | 328 | (12.6) | |||||
| Yes | 126 | (16.6) | 0.035 | 129 | (17.0) | 0.002 | |||
| Diastolic hypertension | |||||||||
| No | 435 | (13.9) | 371 | (13.1) | |||||
| Yes | 91 | (15.6) | 0.294 | 84 | (16.1) | 0.061 | |||
| Hyperglycaemic | |||||||||
| No | 457 | (13.4) | 408 | (13.2) | |||||
| Yes | 73 | (22.1) | <0.001 | 52 | (17.9) | 0.028 | |||
| Education level attained | |||||||||
| None | 19 | (14.4) | 4 | (13.3) | |||||
| Attending/completed primary | 170 | (13.6) | 117 | (12.3) | |||||
| Attending/completed secondary | 437 | (14.4) | 307 | (13.6) | |||||
| Attending/completed tertiary/diploma | 35 | (18.8) | 0.317 | 36 | (21.2) | 0.021 | |||
| Missing | 28 | (13.9) | 111 | (14.6) | |||||
| Employment in past 30 days | |||||||||
| Student/not working | 47 | (16.2) | 34 | (15.1) | |||||
| Casual/part time | 44 | (17.9) | 29 | (17.1) | |||||
| Full time | 146 | (16.4) | 226 | (13.0) | |||||
| Self-employed/housewife | 445 | (13.3) | 153 | (13.4) | |||||
| Retired | 6 | (17.1) | 0.055 | 35 | (16.1) | 0.406 | |||
| Missing | 1 | (25.0) | 98 | (14.4) | |||||
P-values are reported for differences in proportions across variable categories, between non-obese and obese. Pearson’s chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were used to compare categorical variables (Fisher’s exact for categories with cell frequencies of less than five).