Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess the overall diet quality of husbands and wives in a selected urban area in Selangor.
Methodology: This cross-sectional study was carried out in Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor among 150 married couples aged 20 and above, who voluntarily agreed to participate and were not practicing any special diet. Data were collected using a 2-day 24-Hour Dietary Recall and a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) to evaluate the quality of diet among husbands and wives using the Diet Quality Index Revised (DQI-R).
Result: Majority of husbands and wives in this study were in the middle-age group, had received tertiary education, had household monthly income of more than RM3, 500 and encompass household size of 3 to 5 persons. The mean DQI-R score for husbands (mean age= 43.33 + 11.16 years) and wives (mean age= 41.28 + 10.93 years) were 67.8 + 9.1 and 64.4 + 9.3 respectively and there was a significant different in scores between the husbands and wives (p < 0.001). In general, the diet quality of this study population was not satisfactory and that the diet quality of husbands was better compared to their wives.
Conclusion: This study gives an insight picture of husbands and wives’ quality of diet. It can be used as a guideline to improve health intervention programs in the future.
This study was carried out to evaluate the total phenolic content and anti-oxidant activity of methanolic extract of red pitaya, and hypocholesterolemic effect of red pitaya (Hylocereus sp.) on lipid profiles status on hypercholesterolemia induced rats. From the analysis, total phenolic content in red pitaya is 46.06 ± 1.77 mg GAE/100 g fresh weight and antioxidant activity is 76.10% using FTC method. TBA analysis also showed red pitaya extract had high antioxidant effect (72.90%). An in-vivo study also showed red pitaya has hypocholesterolemic effect on induced hypercholesterolemia rats. After 11 weeks of study, total blood cholesterol significant decrease (p