Consumption of Traditional Food and Its Relationship With Overweight/Obese Among Adult Dayak Community in Kuching and Samarahan, Sarawak

Consumption of Traditional Food and Its Relationship With Overweight/Obese Among Adult Dayak Community in Kuching and Samarahan, Sarawak | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Consumption of Traditional Food and Its Relationship With Overweight/Obese Among Adult Dayak Community in Kuching and Samarahan, Sarawak Joseph Unja Anak Anjut This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6677567/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Traditional foods are culturally significant yet understudied for health impact. With Malaysia’s rising rates of overweight and obesity, we examined whether traditional food intake is linked to excess body weight among Dayak adults in Kuching and Samarahan, Sarawak. A cross sectional survey was conducted in eight Dayak community villages (five in Kuching, three in Samarahan). Using cluster sampling, we interviewed 276 adults (41.7% men, 58.3% women) on sociodemographic and their traditional-food frequency together with anthropometric measurement such as height and weight. Associations between food-consumption patterns and BMI were assessed with chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression. Overall, 75.7% of participants were overweight/ obese. After adjustment, adults aged 18–42 years (AOR = 3.0) and 43–66 years (AOR = 2.4) and current alcohol drinkers (AOR = 1.9) were more likely to be overweight/obese than their respective reference groups. Traditional vegetables such as daun ubi tutok, midin, terung Dayak, cangkuk manis, and paku kubok were eaten about 10–11 times per month, whereas preserved items such as kasam fish, pork, or vegetables were consumed far less often. However, in our study we didn’t find significant link between frequency of traditional - food consumption with overweight/ obese respondents, yet prevalence of overweight/obese remains evident in Dayak communities. Further studies such as nutrient profile analyses and broader national nutrition surveys should capture both modern and traditional foods to clarify how both diets influence non-communicable disease risk among indigenous groups. Preventive Medicine traditional food overweight obesity Dayak Sarawak Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Supplementary Files SupplementaryDataSarawakDayakTraditionalfoodStudy.xlsx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-6677567","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":457422646,"identity":"b368c14a-ff5f-4c98-902a-1d0651e09d53","order_by":0,"name":"Joseph Unja Anak Anjut","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA9UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACxgYowdjAfPDBByCHjZ14LWzJhjNAWpiJtoqBx0yaB0QT0sLc3v7wceGOw3nM7cfSpG1+bZPnY2Zg/PAxB48FPWeMjWeeOVzM2JN82Dq377ZhGzMDs+TMbXi0zMhhk+ZtO5zY2JCWeDu35zYjUAsbMy9eLenPf4O19L8xkLbsuW1PhJYEM2awlhk5RtIMP24nEtYC9Iv0zLZ0oJZnyYa9DbeT25gZm/H6xRAYYp8L26wTN/YnH3zw489t2/ntzQc/fMSnpQEaESAGA2Mb2OYG3OqBQJ4BqkUezP2DV/EoGAWjYBSMUAAAPatXAbx6nZgAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Universiti Malaysia Sarawak","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Joseph","middleName":"Unja Anak","lastName":"Anjut","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-05-16 06:13:36","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6677567/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6677567/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":83005663,"identity":"676d8487-aa41-47d5-a2d3-bacc87d3919c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-19 03:06:19","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1446718,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"TraditionalFoodandObesityamongDayak.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6677567/v1_covered_6b8b2f9d-8a59-41d7-a0dd-421189a7f299.pdf"},{"id":83005347,"identity":"274cb0ea-2b7b-495f-aea0-f608fdc29ba7","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-05-19 02:58:17","extension":"xlsx","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":54080,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"SupplementaryDataSarawakDayakTraditionalfoodStudy.xlsx","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-6677567/v1/2604c6a589c2e54ff389e1cc.xlsx"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eConsumption of Traditional Food and Its Relationship With Overweight/Obese Among Adult Dayak Community in Kuching and Samarahan, Sarawak\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"traditional food, overweight, obesity, Dayak, Sarawak","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6677567/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-6677567/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eTraditional foods are culturally significant yet understudied for health impact. With Malaysia’s rising rates of overweight and obesity, we examined whether traditional food intake is linked to excess body weight among Dayak adults in Kuching and Samarahan, Sarawak. A cross sectional survey was conducted in eight Dayak community villages (five in Kuching, three in Samarahan). Using cluster sampling, we interviewed 276 adults (41.7% men, 58.3% women) on sociodemographic and their traditional-food frequency together with anthropometric measurement such as height and weight. Associations between food-consumption patterns and BMI were assessed with chi-square tests and multiple logistic regression.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOverall, 75.7% of participants were overweight/ obese. After adjustment, adults aged 18–42 years (AOR = 3.0) and 43–66 years (AOR = 2.4) and current alcohol drinkers (AOR = 1.9) were more likely to be overweight/obese than their respective reference groups. Traditional vegetables such as \u003cem\u003edaun ubi tutok, midin, terung Dayak, cangkuk manis, and paku kubok\u003c/em\u003e were eaten about 10–11 times per month, whereas preserved items such as kasam fish, pork, or vegetables were consumed far less often. However, in our study we didn’t find significant link between frequency of traditional - food consumption with overweight/ obese respondents, yet prevalence of overweight/obese remains evident in Dayak communities. Further studies such as nutrient profile analyses and broader national nutrition surveys should capture both modern and traditional foods to clarify how both diets influence non-communicable disease risk among indigenous groups.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Consumption of Traditional Food and Its Relationship With Overweight/Obese Among Adult Dayak Community in Kuching and Samarahan, Sarawak","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-05-19 02:58:13","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-6677567/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"db2733bd-1693-43cd-bd23-f3df1b156751","owner":[],"postedDate":"May 19th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":48697132,"name":"Preventive Medicine"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-05-19T02:58:13+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-05-19 02:58:13","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-6677567","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-6677567","identity":"rs-6677567","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}