Exploring the Link Between Bmi, Perceived Neighbourhood Environment and Health Behaviours in Malaysia

Obesity in Malaysia has become increasingly worrying.Besides health behaviours, perceived food and built environments have also been identified as influential factors on obesity.As such, this study aims to explain the obesity phenomenon through perceived environmental factors, health behaviours and the Body Mass Index (BMI).A conceptual model that reflects the interactions between Perceived Neighbourhood Food Environment (PNFE), Perceived Neighbourhood Built Environment (PNBE), Diet Quality (DQ), Physical Activity (PA) and BMI was developed.Adults (n= 256) were approached to complete the questionnaires used in this study.Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses were used to validate the constructs and produce the measurement model, while Structural Equation Modelling was used to compute the causal model.The proposed perceived neighbourhood environment, health behaviours and BMI causal model was a good fit.PNFE (β= .192,p=.032), DQ (β= -.194, p=.004) and PA (β= -.189, p=.010) were found to have significant direct effects on BMI, but not PNBE (β= -.117, p=.143).This result also indicates that PNFE partially mediates the relationship between DQ and BMI, while PNBE does not mediate the relationship between PNBE and BMI.This suggests that the food environment is a highly significant predictor of BMI and should be explored more in future studies.The model illustrates the implications that urban planning has on health behaviours and health outcomes.