The Role of Societal Influences on Weight Loss Supplement Consumption Among Malaysian Young Adults

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-666-6_32How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Weight loss supplements; Young Adults; Societal Factors; social media; Image awareness

Abstract

In reality, many people are concerned about their bodies and the self-image awareness has taken places into affecting the consumption of weight loss supplement. There was noticeable trend within young adults on weight loss supplement consumption for achieving the idealised body image in Malaysia. The aim of this research is to understand the relationship between social influences and the utilisation of weight-loss supplements among young adults in Malaysia. This study employs quantitative design with simple random sampling and snowball sampling techniques to select a representative sample of 497 young adults aged 18–27 in Malaysia in different states. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire administered via Google Forms, capturing information on independent variables, dependent variables, and demographics. We conducted a pilot study to validate the questionnaire, SPSS software was used to assess its reliability. Results show weight loss supplement intake are significantly influenced by social media, social pressure, and social cultural proven with P-value less than 0.05 among young adults in Malaysia. Social media, particularly marketing influencer, heavily impacts purchasing decisions, while peer influence and cultural ideals surrounding body image further promote supplement use. The findings underscore the growing dependency on supplements as a quick fix for body dissatisfaction, which can lead to health risks, especially with unregulated products. The study also highlights the need for improvement in public education on sustainable and healthier weight management strategies, calling for targeted interventions to mitigate over-reliance on supplements. These insights are valuable for healthcare policymakers, educators, and marketers in promoting a more health-conscious society.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Willis Chau
AU  - Kai Boon Goh
AU  - Xuan Ying H’ng
AU  - Khay Lok Tong
AU  - Ru Jun Wong
AU  - Hemaniswarri Dewi Dewadas
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/03/17
TI  - The Role of Societal Influences on Weight Loss Supplement Consumption Among Malaysian Young Adults
BT  - Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Business, Accounting, Finance and Economics (BAFE 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 533
EP  - 550
SN  - 2352-5428
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-666-6_32
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-666-6_32
ID  - Chau2025
ER  -