This paper will present the socioeconomic profile and nutritional status of children aged 1-6 years in the rubber smallholdings of Peninsula Malaysia. A total of 323 households were involved in this study. The sociodemographic data were obtained through interviews with heads of households using a set of questionnaires. Anthropometric measurements were taken from 506 children aged 1-6 years from these households. The weight and height of the children were compared with the reference values of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and the nutritional status was classified based on the recommendations of WHO. The average age of the fathers was 39.9+/-8.6 years and 34.4+/-7.0 years for the mothers. The mean household size was 6.67+/-2.27. The majority (49.7%) of the heads of households received 4-6 years of formal education and 7.9% received no formal education. Based on the monthly per capita income, 24.0% were found to be in the hardcore poor category, 38.3% fall into the poor category and 37.7% in the above poverty income group. The prevalence of stunting and underweight among children between the ages of 1-6 years were highest among children from the hardcore poor, followed by the poor category and above the poverty line income group. Wasting was present in all income groups, with a prevalence of 4.2% found among the hardcore poor, 9.4% among the poor group and 8.4% in the above poverty income group. The Pearson Product Moment Correlation showed significant relationships between household total income and height-for-age (r = 0.131, P = 0.05) and weight-for-age (r = 0.127, P = 0.05). There were also significant correlations between monthly per capita income with height-for-age (r = 0.16, P < 0.01) and weight-for-age (r = 0.13, P < 0.05). The acreage of land utilised was correlated with height-for-age (r = 0.11, P < 0.05), weight-for-age (r = 0.17, P < 0.05) and weight-for-height (r = 0.16, P < 0.05). However, stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that the predictor of height-for-age was monthly per capita income (R2 = 0.03, P < 0.01) and acreage of land utilised was a predictor for weight-for-age (R2 = 0.03, P < 0.01) and weight-for-height (R2 = 0.01, P < 0.01). Because income and acreage of land utilised have been shown to be associated with nutritional status, it is recommended that intervention programs that focus on generation of income and diversification of land utilisation should be undertaken. A multidiscipline approach involving the family, community and government agencies should be applied to any type of intervention program.

The present study is unique in the Malaysian context on two counts; first, it employs for the first time a functional group approach (groups based on occupational or economic activity) in the assessment of community nutritional status. Second, the study provides on a nationwide-sampling basis, information on total blood cholesterol (TC) levels in rural children (7.0-12.9 years; n = 1921) and adolescents (13.0-17.9 years; n = 753) which were hitherto unavailable. Total blood cholesterol measurements were performed on 7184 subjects ranging from 7 to 75-years-old (males = 3151; females = 4033) from households in 69 rural villages and seven estates in peninsular Malaysia, which were based on selected multistage random sampling according to the household's involvement in the following economic activities: rice farming, rubber smallholding, coconut smallholding, fishing and employment in estates. In all functional groups, TC values increased with age and there was a distinct gender effect, namely females had higher TC values than males throughout the age spectrum analyzed. Mean TC levels for children and adolescents were in the range 3.85-4.37 mmol/L, rising markedly during adulthood to an overall mean of 4.91 ± 1.13 mmol/L for men and 5.17 ± 1.11 mmol/L for women. In adults (>= 18.0 years), there was marked disparity in mean TC values among the functional groups; males and females from rice households had the lowest mean TC values (4.58 and 4.99 mmol/L, respectively). Individuals at 'high risk' (TC > 6.20 mmol/L) averaged 16.0% in women and 11.6% in men, with women from the fishing, rubber and coconut households particularly affected (17.1-21.1%). When compared to earlier rural TC data reported for closely similar rural communities in the peninsula, the present findings suggest a 'hypercholesterolemic shift' approximating 0.39 mmol/L (15 mg/dL) in the adult population; however, this was not apparent in the children and adolescents from these rural communities.

Various challenges stand in the way of countries in Southeast Asia attempting to tackle the double burden of nutritional deficiencies as well as excesses. Adequate financial and human resources are major obstacles to the implementation of effective intervention programs.Another important obstacle is the lack of comprehensive data on the nutrition situation. It cannot be overemphasized that data on nutritional status, dietary pattern, nutritional adequacy, and physical activity pattern are vital for planning and implementation of nutrition intervention programs. Regular monitoring of the nutrition situation is particularly important for rapidly developing countries, such as those in the region. Unfortunately, few countries in the region conduct regular national nutrition surveys or carry out nationwide nutrition assessment studies.Leading research organizations in 4 countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, jointly conducted the South East Asian Nutrition Surveys (SEANUTS) and provided a large set of descriptive data using comparable methodology, allowing comparing nutritional status parameters between the countries. The study is of significant public health importance as it gives a good overview of the current nutritional problems and associated factors in the Southeast Asian region.A number of articles of the SEANUTS study have been published earlier, starting with main findings in the 4 countries in a British Journal of Nutrition supplement in 2013, followed by articles on more specific topics. An important finding is the emerging prevalence of overweight and obesity, especially in certain segments of the population, and even in those countries where the prevalence of undernutrition, particularly stunting and thinness, is still very high. Another interesting finding is the high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in all 4 countries, for which a number of common associated factors were described. These findings merit further investigations.SEANUTS is a cross-sectional study and as such results and associations are merely descriptive and should ideally be investigated in more detail, perhaps in interventions, to be able to go into the core of the problem. For example, the description of the physical activity patterns and domains in Malaysian children and its associated factors 1 should ideally lead to actions and policies to tackle the widespread problem of physical inactivity in children, that is, without a doubt, one of the main reasons for the alarming prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity in Malaysia. Or the relative high prevalence of anemia and iron deficiency in Vietnamese school children 2 that should be taken seriously; especially in girls, to prevent the very real possibility that in a few years' time they will surely belong to the large group of anemic (pregnant) women that will give their child a bad head start in growth and mental development.