The associations between dietary practices and dietary quality, biological health indicators, perceived stress, religiosity, culture, and gender in multicultural Singapore
Background: Dietary quality, biological health, culture, religiosity, and perceived stress are co-related. However, there is a dearth of research conducted on Asian populations in secularized and harmonious multicultural societies. Methods: This study addresses these gaps by conducting an investigat...
Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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Format: | Journal Article |
Language: | English |
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2018
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Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/89793 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/46395 |
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author | Ng, Rachel Yi-Xin Wong, Yi-Sheng Yeo, Joshua-Yi Koh, Crystal Ling-Zhen Wilson, Cynthia Gan, Samuel Ken-En |
author2 | School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences |
author_facet | School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Ng, Rachel Yi-Xin Wong, Yi-Sheng Yeo, Joshua-Yi Koh, Crystal Ling-Zhen Wilson, Cynthia Gan, Samuel Ken-En |
author_sort | Ng, Rachel Yi-Xin |
collection | NTU |
description | Background: Dietary quality, biological health, culture, religiosity, and perceived stress are co-related. However, there is a dearth of research conducted on Asian populations in secularized and harmonious multicultural societies. Methods: This study addresses these gaps by conducting an investigation in the multicultural and multireligious Singapore to examine the parameters of culture and gender and the associations with (1) dietary quality, (2) biological health indicators, (3) religiosity, and (4) perceived stress. One hundred fifty participants (18–60 years old) were recruited, and their blood pressure (BP), body mass index (BMI), and body fat percentage (BF%) were also measured along with a 5-part questionnaire on demographics, dietary practice, food frequency, religiosity, and perceived stress. Results and conclusion: Results showed that cultural differences are associated with certain dietary practices, where the three ethnic groups of Chinese, Malays, and Indians significantly differed in their choices of meal locations such as Western fast food restaurants (H = 12.369, p = .002061*). Our analysis revealed that perceived stress significantly correlated with fat intake (rs = .169, N = 150, p = .03865) and sugar intake (rs = .172, N = 150, p = .03575). On the other hand, biological parameters such as diastolic BP (rs = −.0473, N = 150, p = .565), systolic BP (rs = −.00972, N = 150, p = .906), BMI (rs = −.0403, N = 150, p = .6246), and BF% (rs = −.110, N = 150, p = .1811) did not have significant correlations with perceived stress. Similarly, religiosity did not significantly correlate with perceived stress (rs = −.025, N = 150, p = .7616). In conclusion, our findings provide insights into the changing intersection of food practices mitigated by ethnicity, religiosity, stress, and gender in the harmonious multiracial and multicultural Singapore. |
first_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:57:22Z |
format | Journal Article |
id | ntu-10356/89793 |
institution | Nanyang Technological University |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:57:22Z |
publishDate | 2018 |
record_format | dspace |
spelling | ntu-10356/897932023-02-28T19:34:22Z The associations between dietary practices and dietary quality, biological health indicators, perceived stress, religiosity, culture, and gender in multicultural Singapore Ng, Rachel Yi-Xin Wong, Yi-Sheng Yeo, Joshua-Yi Koh, Crystal Ling-Zhen Wilson, Cynthia Gan, Samuel Ken-En School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Culture Dietary Practices DRNTU::Science::Mathematics Background: Dietary quality, biological health, culture, religiosity, and perceived stress are co-related. However, there is a dearth of research conducted on Asian populations in secularized and harmonious multicultural societies. Methods: This study addresses these gaps by conducting an investigation in the multicultural and multireligious Singapore to examine the parameters of culture and gender and the associations with (1) dietary quality, (2) biological health indicators, (3) religiosity, and (4) perceived stress. One hundred fifty participants (18–60 years old) were recruited, and their blood pressure (BP), body mass index (BMI), and body fat percentage (BF%) were also measured along with a 5-part questionnaire on demographics, dietary practice, food frequency, religiosity, and perceived stress. Results and conclusion: Results showed that cultural differences are associated with certain dietary practices, where the three ethnic groups of Chinese, Malays, and Indians significantly differed in their choices of meal locations such as Western fast food restaurants (H = 12.369, p = .002061*). Our analysis revealed that perceived stress significantly correlated with fat intake (rs = .169, N = 150, p = .03865) and sugar intake (rs = .172, N = 150, p = .03575). On the other hand, biological parameters such as diastolic BP (rs = −.0473, N = 150, p = .565), systolic BP (rs = −.00972, N = 150, p = .906), BMI (rs = −.0403, N = 150, p = .6246), and BF% (rs = −.110, N = 150, p = .1811) did not have significant correlations with perceived stress. Similarly, religiosity did not significantly correlate with perceived stress (rs = −.025, N = 150, p = .7616). In conclusion, our findings provide insights into the changing intersection of food practices mitigated by ethnicity, religiosity, stress, and gender in the harmonious multiracial and multicultural Singapore. ASTAR (Agency for Sci., Tech. and Research, S’pore) Published version 2018-10-22T03:00:40Z 2019-12-06T17:33:37Z 2018-10-22T03:00:40Z 2019-12-06T17:33:37Z 2018 Journal Article Ng, R. Y.-X., Wong, Y.-S., Yeo, J.-Y., Koh, C. L.-Z., Wilson, C., & Gan, S. K.-E. (2018). The associations between dietary practices and dietary quality, biological health indicators, perceived stress, religiosity, culture, and gender in multicultural Singapore. Journal of Ethnic Foods, 5(3), 220-227. doi:10.1016/j.jef.2018.07.003 2352-6181 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/89793 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/46395 10.1016/j.jef.2018.07.003 en Journal of Ethnic Foods © 2018 Korea Food Research Institute. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 8 p. application/pdf |
spellingShingle | Culture Dietary Practices DRNTU::Science::Mathematics Ng, Rachel Yi-Xin Wong, Yi-Sheng Yeo, Joshua-Yi Koh, Crystal Ling-Zhen Wilson, Cynthia Gan, Samuel Ken-En The associations between dietary practices and dietary quality, biological health indicators, perceived stress, religiosity, culture, and gender in multicultural Singapore |
title | The associations between dietary practices and dietary quality, biological health indicators, perceived stress, religiosity, culture, and gender in multicultural Singapore |
title_full | The associations between dietary practices and dietary quality, biological health indicators, perceived stress, religiosity, culture, and gender in multicultural Singapore |
title_fullStr | The associations between dietary practices and dietary quality, biological health indicators, perceived stress, religiosity, culture, and gender in multicultural Singapore |
title_full_unstemmed | The associations between dietary practices and dietary quality, biological health indicators, perceived stress, religiosity, culture, and gender in multicultural Singapore |
title_short | The associations between dietary practices and dietary quality, biological health indicators, perceived stress, religiosity, culture, and gender in multicultural Singapore |
title_sort | associations between dietary practices and dietary quality biological health indicators perceived stress religiosity culture and gender in multicultural singapore |
topic | Culture Dietary Practices DRNTU::Science::Mathematics |
url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/89793 http://hdl.handle.net/10220/46395 |
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