FPH UI Online Seminar Series 3 Discusses Public Health Nutrition’s, Online Guest Lecture Series: Unraveling Current Issues Related to Obesity

Monday, February 26, 2024, the Faculty of Public Health (FPH) Universitas Indonesia held a Guest Lecture initiated by the Department of Nutrition and became part of the FPH UI Online Seminar Series, namely the 3rd series. The lecture, which was held in a hybrid manner, had the theme “Unraveling Current Issues Related to Obesity”. This seminar was attended by more than 100 students from the FPH UI Nutrition Study Program.

“Currently, Indonesia is still facing many nutritional problems. The prevalence of this nutritional problem continues to increase from year to year. “We must take advantage of every opportunity to learn how to prevent problems related to nutrition, one of which is through this guest lecture,” said Deputy Dean for Education, Research and Student Affairs, FPH UI, Dr. Ir. Asih Setiarini, M.Sc., in his speech.

Present as a resource person, Dr. Theresia H. Mina, Senior Dean’s Fellow at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine Singapore. Doctor Theresia explained about “Adiposity Impacts Cognitive Function in Asian Populations”. Research conducted by Dr. Theresia departed from the results of a meta-analysis which stated that the higher a person’s cognitive ability, the lower the potential for that person to experience cognitive decline. Apart from baseline cognitive function, it turns out that metabolic syndrome, such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, also influences the decline in cognitive function. For this reason, Dr. Theresa conducted a study with visceral fat as the exposure and cognitive function as the outcome.

This research used 2 (two) methods, namely the epidemiological analysis method and two-sample Mendelian Randomization, with a sample size of 8769 people, the results showed that excess visceral fat was related to low cognitive function. This can happen because excess visceral fat causes blood pressure to increase, which ultimately has an impact on nerve cells. “It can be concluded that excess fat is a determinant of high or low cognitive function in populations in Asia. “Preventing excess fat can improve a person’s cognitive function, which in turn reduces the risk of developing cognitive decline diseases, such as dementia,” concluded Dr. Theresa. Doctor Theresia also believes that preventing excess fat can solve two world health problems at once, namely obesity and dementia. (WR)