The Association Between Spiritual Wellbeing and Dietary Intake Among Overweight and Obese Female University Student: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction: Obesity has become a public health threat worldwide and processing a high burden to the healthcare system. This study aimed to determine the association between spiritual wellbeing and dietary intake among overweight and obese female students in a university in Peninsular Malaysia. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study involving 100 female students from a public university in the East Coast Region of Peninsular Malaysia. The participants are selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Spiritual wellbeing is measured using an adapted and validated spirituality questionnaire, while the dietary intake was calculated using a 24-hour dietary intake questionnaire. Data were analysed using SPSS version 23 and Nutritionist Pro. Pearson correlation is applied to measure the association between spiritual wellbeing and dietary intake. Results: Spiritual wellbeing was negatively correlated with dietary intake (r= -0.026, p=0.797). The results showed no significant association between spiritual wellbeing and dietary intake (p>0.05). Conclusion: To conclude, there is no significant association between spiritual wellbeing and dietary intake among overweight and obese female students. Future research could add other variables such as the micronutrients and macronutrients into the study can help to get a more significant result. Besides, a large-scale study is also warranted to observe the association between spiritual wellbeing and dietary intake among overweight and obese female university students in Malaysia.