Association of Smoking with Overall obesity and Central Obesity among Malaysian Adults

Introduction:  
Smoking and obesity are major public health problems in Malaysia. A study in Korea showed that current smokers were more likely to be centrally obese than never smokers. While, other study showing a different result. This study aimed to examine the association between smoking status and obesity among Malaysian adults.    

Method:  
This study was using data from the 2015 NHMS. Respondents aged 18 years and above (n=18,366) were included in the analysis. Respondents with no information about weight, height, body mass index, waist circumference and smoking status were excluded in the analysis. Smoking was examined in term of smoking status and the quantity of cigarettes smoked by current smokers. Overall obesity was defined as BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2 and central obesity was a waist circumference ≥ 95 cm for males and ≥ 85 cm for females. Descriptive and multiple logistic regression analyses were used to assess the association between smoking status and obesity.     

Results:  
A statistically significant difference was found in overall obesity and central obesity with smoking status. Current smokers were less likely to be obesity (BMI) than never smokers (adjusted odds ratio, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.64 to 0.82) and also were less likely to be central obesity than never smokers (adjusted odds ratio, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.66 to 0.88). However, among current smokers, there is no statistically significant association was found between the daily amount of smoking (cigarettes) with overall obesity or central obesity.    

Conclusion:  
Smoking was positively associated with overall obesity and central obesity. Further study should be done to see whether categories of current smoker (light/moderate/heavy) will give a different result.

Disclaimer: Abstract text might vary slightly from what is displayed in the e-poster.