Publication: The association between food literacy with carbohydrate and sucrose intake among type ii diabetes patients in Hospital Pakar Universiti Sains Malaysia (HPUSM)
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Date
2025-07
Authors
Teng, Mandy Yee Hui
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Abstract
Poor diet quality and malnutrition are linked with poorer outcomes following cancer treatment. This study determined the association between diet quality and malnutrition status among cancer patients in Hospital Pakar Universiti Sains Malaysia (HPUSM). This cross-sectional study involving 91 cancer patients receiving both outpatient and inpatient cancer treatment, selected using convenience sampling. A set of validated questionnaires were used which consists information of socio-demography, 3-days diet recalls and Subjective Global Assessment (SGA). Diet quality status was assessed using the new standardized Malaysian Healthy Eating Index (S-MHEI). Majority of the participants were women (70.3%), identified as Malay (95.6%), married (84.6%), had a secondary school level of education (60.4%), unemployed (61.5%), and reported a monthly income of less than RM2,500 per month (78%). Among the participants, 70.3% reported a family history of cancer. Most participants did not have major comorbidities, with 63.7% without hypertension, 69.2% without type 2 diabetes mellitus, 74.7% without hyperlipidaemia, 92.3% without heart disease, and 93.4% without kidney disease. The most common cancer type was reproductive cancers (27.5%), while the majority were diagnosed at Stage 3 (35.6%). More than half of the participants (53.8%) were receiving chemotherapy as their primary treatment. The mean diet quality score among cancer patients was 56.43 ± 13.12. The minimum and maximum scores were 25 and 85, respectively. This indicated that the overall diet quality of the sample needs an improvement. Based on the three-category classification, 58.2% of patients were classified as well-nourished (SGA A), 27.5% of patients were classified as moderately malnourished or at risk (SGA B), while 14.3% were classified as severely malnourished (SGA C). This indicated a high prevalence of malnutrition among cancer patients in this study. There was no statistically significant mean difference of diet quality between well-nourished (SGA A) and malnourished (SGA B+C) patients (p = 0.228). This suggests that other factors beyond diet quality such as nutrition knowledge, psychological well-being, functional limitations, treatment burden, food accessibility, and the level of social or caregiver support may play a more significant factor in malnutrition status among cancer patients
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