PILOT EVALUATION OF TWO CHILDHOOD OBESITY PREVENTION PROGRAMMES IN MALAYSIA

Programmes that increase awareness of childhood obesity are vital to reducing the number of obese adults and adults with cardiovascular diseases. However, the effectiveness of these programmes must be evaluated to optimise resources for childhood obesity awareness programmes. The present study was conducted to assess the intermediate cost-effectiveness and provide a cost analysis of childhood obesity health promotion programmes. This quasi-experimental study compared the intermediate outcomes of the Sahabat Sihat and Be Best programmes over a six-month period. Data regarding health-related quality of life (EQ-5D and EQ-VAS), the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice questionnaire, and biomedical data were obtained from booklets prepared by MySihat for childhood obesity-related health promotion programmes. Data regarding cost was obtained from the expenditure records of the respective health promotion programmes. The intergroup and intragroup comparisons between the EQ-5D and EQ-VAS results, the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice scores, and the biomedical data were explored using the Mann-Whitney and Friedman tests. Descriptive statistics were utilised in the analysis of the cost results. Be Best and Sahabat Sihat were successful in helping to prevent overweight respondents from becoming obese. The Attitude score was higher among the Sahabat Sihat cohort, but the Practice score was higher among the Be Best cohort. Be Best had a lower mean cost per participant and was more cost-effective than Sahabat Sihat.