Food Insecurity, Quality of Life, and Diet Optimization of Low Income University Students in Selangor, Malaysia
Abstract
This study aim to determine the relationship between food security with quality of life and nutritional status among low income students in a public university in Selangor, Malaysia. A cross-sectional survey was carried out on 108 low income students who were chosen by convenient sampling method. Students were interviewed using a structured questionnaire to obtain information on their sociodemographic characteristics, food security status, quality of life, anthropometric data, and dietary intake. Results showed that 69.4% of students were food insecure with 50% reported low food security and 19.4% with very low food security. For quality of life, students scored highest in social relationship domain (68.60±14.53) while lowest in physical health domain (53.87±10.42). There was no significant association between food security and quality of life, ethnic, age, family income, financial assistance, CGPA, and food expenditure (p>0.05). Majority of students (59.2%) had normal Body Mass Index (BMI), followed by 20.4% were overweight, 10.2% were obese, and 10.2% were underweight. There
was no significant correlation between nutritional status with food security status (p>0.05). To estimate the minimum daily food expenditure to fulfil all nutrient requirements, an optimum diet model was created by using linear programming model. Result showed that the minimum price of one day menu for male and female student was USD 4.90 and USD 5.20 each. The cost was higher than their average food expenditure (USD 2.90), indicating that students in the university have to spend more money on food sold at the university cafeteria to fulfill their nutrient recommendation. Hence, relevant authorities should take appropriate initiatives so that the food insecurity problem among low income university students can be managed to improve their quality of life and nutritional status.
Full text article
References
Abdull Hakim NH, Muniandy ND, Ajau Danish. 2012. Nutritional status and eating practices among university students in selected universities in Selangor, Malaysia. Asian J Clin Nutr 4(3):77–87.
Broton K, Goldrick-Rab S. 2016. The dark side of college (Un) affordability: Food and housing insecurity in higher education change. The Magazine of Higher Learning 48(1):16–25.
Buttriss JL, Briend A, Darmon N, Ferguson EL, Maillot M, Lluch A. 2014. Diet modelling: How it can inform the development of dietary recommendations and public health policy. Nutrition bulletin 39(1):115–125.
Chan SW. 2013. Gender differences in eating behaviour. International Journal of Accounting & Business Management 4(2):116–121.
Chung HK, Kim OY, Kwak SY, Cho Y, Lee KW, Shin MJ. 2016. Household food insecurity is associated with adverse mental health indicators and lower quality of life among Koreans: Results from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2012-2013. Nutrients 8(12):819.
Ekaningrum AY, Sukandar D, Martianto D. 2017. Keterkaitan densitas gizi, harga pangan, dan status gizi pada anak Sekolah Dasar Negeri (SDN) Pekayon 16 Pagi. J Gizi Pangan 12(2):139–146.
FAO I, UNICEF, WFP, WHO. 2018. The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2018. Building Climate Resilience for Food Security and Nutrition. FAO. Rome.
Farahbakhsh J, Hanbazaza M, Ball GDC, Farmer AP, Maximova K, Willows ND. 2017. Food insecure student clients of a university based food bank have compromised health, dietary intake and academic quality. Nutrition & dietetics 74(1):67–73.
Gallegos D, Ramsey R, Ong KW. 2014. Food insecurity: Is it an issue among tertiary students? Higher Education 67(5):497–510.
Gan WY, Mohd T, Mohd Shariff Z, Abu Saad H. 2011. Differences in eating behaviours, dietary intake and body weight status between male and female Malaysian university students. Malaysian Journal of Nutrition 17(2):213–228.
Gholami A, Khazaee-Pool M, Rezaei N, Amirkalali B, Moradpour F, Rajabi A, Sohrabi M, Yarmohammadi R, Z Mousavi J. 2017. Household food insecurity is associated with health-related quality of life in rural type 2 diabetic patients. Archives of Iranian Medicine 20(6):350–355. doi: 0172006/AIM.006.
Gundersen C. 2013. Food insecurity is an ongoing national concern. Advances in Nutrition 4(1):36–41.
Hagedorn RLO, Melissa D. 2018. Food insecurity and behavioral characteristics for academic success in young adults attending an Appalachian University. Nutrients 10(3):361.
Haron H, Osman BM, Maidinsah H, Sari MMM, Zaki NQM. 2015. Determinants of quality of life (qol) and quality of university life (qul) in Malaysian public university students. AIP Conference Proceedings 505–511.
Hashim N, Isa KAM, Dahlan A, Ismail NH. 2014. Exploring the understanding of hunger experience among Malay undergraduate students in Malaysia. Recent Trends in Social and Behaviour Sciences: Proceedings of the 2nd International Congress on Interdisciplinary Behavior and Social Science, ICIBSoS 2013. 549–552.
Huang TTK, Harris KJ, Lee RE, Nazir N, Born W, Kaur H. 2003. Assessing overweight, obesity, diet, and physical activity in college students. J Am Coll Health 52(2):83–86.
Khazanah Research Institute. 2018. The State Of Households 2018: Different Realities 3rd Edition. Khazanah Research Institute.
Lee A, Mhurchu CN, Sacks G, Swinburn B, Snowdon W, Vandevijvere S, Hawkes C, L'abbe M, Rayner M, Sanders D, et al. 2013. Monitoring the price and affordability of foods and diets globally. Obes Rev 14(1):82–95.
Mahidin DSDMU. 2019. Consumer Price Index Malaysia April 2019. Malaysia: Department of Statistics Malaysia. Maillot M, Darmon N, Darmon M, Lafay L, Drewnowski A. 2007. Nutrient-dense food groups have high energy costs: an econometric approach to nutrient profiling. J Nutr 137(7):1815–1820.
Mansour R. 2014. Food Security among Students at University of Wollongong. Doctor of Philosophy thesis, School of Health and Society, University of Wollongong. http://ro.uow.edu.au/theses/4337.
Mason AJ. 2012. Opensolver-an Open Source Add-in to Solve Linear and Integer Progammes in Excel. Operations Research Proceedings 2011. Springer 401–406.
McArthur LH, Ball L, Danek AC, Holbert D. 2018. A high prevalence of food insecurity among university students in Appalachia reflects a need for educational interventions and policy advocacy. J Nutr Educ Behav 50(6):564–572.
Moy F, Surin J, Ismail Y, Mahad R, Tie F, Wan Ismail W. 2009. Breakfast skipping and its associated factors among undergraduates in a public university in Kuala Lumpur. Malays J Nutr 15(2):165–174.
Munro N, Quayle M, Simspon H, Barnsley S. 2013. Hunger for knowledge: Food insecurity among students at the University of Kwazulu-Natal. Perspectives in Education 31(4):168–179.
Nisha FKA. 2017. Tingkah laku mahasiswa dalam menguruskan wang pembiayaan pendidikan. Malaysia: Proceeding of the 4th International Conference on Management and Muamalah 2017.
Okubo H, Sasaki S, Murakami K, Yokoyama T, Hirota N, Notsu A, Fukui 1M, Date C. 2015. Designing optimal food intake patterns to achieve nutritional goals for Japanese adults through the use of linear programming optimization models. Nutr J 14(1):57.
Payne-Sturges DC, Tjaden A, Caldeira KM, Vincent KB, Arria AM. 2018. Student hunger on campus: food insecurity among college students and implications for academic institutions. Am J Health Promot 32(2):349–354.
Puspadewi RH, Briawan D. 2015. Persepsi tentang pangan sehat, alasan pemilihan pangan dan kebiasaan makan sehat pada mahasiswa. J Gizi Pangan 9(3):211–218.
Rajikan R, Zaidi NIA, Elias SM, Shahar S, Manaf ZA, Yusoff NaM. 2017. Construction of healthy and palatable diet for low socioeconomic female adults using linear programming. Int J Adv Sci Eng Inf Technol 7(1):125–131.
Rudolph M, Kroll F, Muchesa E, Manderson A, Berry M, Richard N. 2018. Food insecurity and coping strategies amongst students at University of Witwatersrand. J Food Secur 6(1):20–25.
Saruchi S, Abdul-Rahman A, Wahid H. 2015. Pola perbelanjaan dan haddul kifayah zakat bagi pelajar sarjana muda di UKM. Jurnal Personalia Pelajar 18(2):33–44.
Seligman HK, Schillinger D. 2010. Hunger and socioeconomic disparities in chronic disease. N Engl J Med 363(1):6–9.
Soldavini J, Berner M, Da-Silva J. 2019. Rates of and characteristics associated with food insecurity differ among undergraduate and graduate students at a large public university in the southeast United States. Preventive Medicine Reports 14(100836):2–8.
Strange CC, Banning JH. 2001. Educating by Design: Creating Campus Learning Environments That Work. The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series. ERIC.
Sulaiman N, Md. Jusoh Z, Ab Razak M. 2013. Food insecurity among public university students receiving financial assistance in peninsular Malaysia. Malaysian J Consum Fam Econ 16:78–90.
Ramlee IS, Ali A, Zalbahar N, Wahab RA, Jaafar SNA. 2019. Food insecurity among university students at two selected public universities in Malaysia. Malaysian Applied Biology 48(1):101–110.
Thakur R. 2016. Gendered Perspectives on Food Insecurity in Saskatoon. University of Saskatchewan.
[USDA] United States Department of Agriculture. 2018. Definitions of Food Security. United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service.
Vakili Z, Mohamad AR, Vakili MA. 2012. A quantitative study of quality of life (Qol) on postgraduate students in Universiti Sains Malaysia. Casp J Appl Sci Res 1(7):28–32.
[WHO] World Health Organization. 2012. Guideline: Potassium Intake for Adults and Children.World Health Organization.
Authors
The copyrights of manuscripts shall be assigned/transferred to Jurnal Gizi dan Pangan (Indonesian Journal of Nutrition and Food).
Article Details
How to Cite
