Prevalence of Obesity and Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile among Malaysian and Indonesian Nurses

Background: Harmful lifestyle behaviours trigger physiological changes that multiply the risk of non-communicable diseases in the population. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was used to compare the prevalence of obesity and Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profiles (HPLP) among Malaysian and Indonesian Nurses. A total of 417 and 406 nurses from Malaysia and Indonesia participated in the study, respectively. Purposive sampling was used to select facilities, while convenience sampling was used for respondents’ selection. Data was collected using an online Google form and analysis was done using SPSS version 25.0. Results: The result of the study shows a significant association between age (p = 0.001 vs. 0.001) and marital status (p = 0.001 vs. 0.03) with BMI for Malaysia and Indonesia, respectively. A high prevalence rate of obesity was observed in Malaysia (55.9%) and Indonesia (47%). The total HPLP II score of the respondents were Malaysia (142.46 ± 22.70) and Indonesia (129.77 ± 17.89). Spiritual growth and interpersonal relationships had the highest subscale scores for both countries. Physical activity was lowest at 19.45 ± 4.54 vs 18.04 ± 4.27 for Malaysia and Indonesia, respectively. Lastly, a statistically weak relationship was found when BMI was correlated with health responsibility (r = 0.129, p = 0.009) for Malaysia. Similarly, weak correlations were observed in Indonesia between BMI and physical activity (r = 0.106, p = 0.033) and between BMI and interpersonal relationships (r = 0.120, p = 0.015). Conclusion: The prevalence of obesity was high, while physical activity was lowest for both countries.