The relationship between lifestyle factors and lipid profiles among Malaysian adult

Obesity is a growing global health issue, with increasing rates seen globally, especially in Malaysia, where the rising prevalence of overweight and obesity poses significant public health challenges. (Tiwari & Balasundaram, 2023; Chong et al., 2023). According to the World Health Organisation (2021), the worldwide prevalence of obesity nearly tripled between 1975 and 2016 (Ahmed & Konje, 2023). This study aims to determine how lifestyle factors such as dietary habits, psychological well-being and physical activity level can affect lipid parameters among Malaysian adults. The study includes three phases: phase 1 (pre-assessment), phase 2 (intervention-phase), and phase 3 (post-assessment). Participants must complete the assessment, including questionnaires, anthropometric measurements, and blood collection during phases 1 and phase 3. For phase 2, an intervention group involved in an intervention program. As the data were not normally distributed, non-parametric tests (Wilcoxon Signed-Rank and Mann–Whitney U tests) were employed. Intervention groups showed considerable reductions in energy and macronutrient intake, about a 16% drop out in energy intake, with carbohydrates reduced by 39-110 g, protein by 15-108 g and fat by 13-28 g after the program which demonstrated the intervention's positive effect. Meanwhile, the control group showed very little change in their dietary intake. Yet there was no statistically significant association between lifestyle factors and lipid profiles. A key limitation was a 60% dropout rate from the planned 200 to 80 subjects, reducing the power of genetic association tests. Despite these constraints, the study presents preliminary evidence of lifestyle factor interaction and highlights the importance of a comprehensive understanding of the study and having repeated measurement and adequate sample size in a lifestyle factors-lipid profiles study in the future.