Dietary phytochemical index and its association to body mass index and haemoglobin concentration in UPM female undergraduates

Introduction: The prevalence of obesity and anaemia among female population has emerged as a public health concern in Malaysia. Phytochemicals, the naturally occurring compounds in plant-based foods, demonstrated potential health benefits, including anti-obesity and anti-anaemic properties. Despite its potential benefits, few studies have explored this area, particularly with the use of the phytochemical index (PI) as a novel measurement tool in assessing dietary phytochemical intake, offering a new perspective on dietary assessment. Therefore, this study was designed to determine the associations between dietary PI with body mass index (BMI) and haemoglobin (Hb) concentration among female undergraduate students in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). Methods: Information on the sociodemographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements and Hb concentration were collected in the primary study. This secondary data analysis study was focused on estimating the dietary PI based on 1-day 24-hour dietary recall data collected in the primary study, and assessing the associations with BMI and Hb concentration using Spearman’s rank correlation. Logistic regression was used to determine the odds ratio (OR) of overweight/obese and anaemia across dietary PI quartiles. Findings: A total of 181 respondents with mean ± SD age of 21.14 ± 1.30 years old participated in this study. Among the participating respondents, the majority were Malay (75.7%), from the Faculty of Engineering (37.0%), and did not consume any of the phytochemical-rich foods (39.2%). Nearly 22.7% of the respondents were overweight/obese, with anaemia prevalence of 51.4%. Although bivariate analyses showed no significant correlations between dietary PI with BMI (r = -0.056, p = 0.455) and Hb (r = 0.074, p = 0.322), logistic regression showed that respondents in the third quartile of dietary PI (Q3) had significantly higher odds of being overweight/obese and anaemic compared to those in the highest quartile of dietary PI (Q4) (overweight/obese, OR: 3.250, CI: 1.048 – 10.074, p < 0.05; anaemia, OR: 2.500, CI: 1.064 – 5.874, p < 0.05). Conclusion: The findings suggest that a higher dietary PI may be linked to a lower risk of obesity and anaemia in this population. These insights could inform future more targeted dietary interventions emphasising on phytochemical intake, for better management and prevention of obesity and anaemia, with the potential for developing local PI cut-offs.

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