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Although several studies have been conducted in Bangladesh regarding sleep problems during the COVID-19 pandemic, none have utilized a large nationwide sample or presented their findings based on nationwide geographical distribution. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to explore the total sleep duration, night-time sleep, and daily naptime and their associated factors as well as geographic information system (GIS) distribution. A cross-sectional survey was carried out among 9730 people in April 2020, including questions relating to socio-demographic variables, behavioral and health factors, lockdown, depression, suicidal ideation, night sleep duration, and naptime duration. Descriptive and inferential statistics, both linear and multivariate regression, and spatial distribution were performed using Microsoft Excel, SPSS, Stata, and ArcGIS software. The results indicated that 64.7% reported sleeping 7–9 h a night, while 29.6% slept less than 7 h nightly, and 5.7% slept more than 9 h nightly. 43.7% reported 30–60 min of daily nap duration, whereas 20.9% napped for more than 1 h daily. Significant predictors of total daily sleep duration were being aged 18–25 years, being unemployed, being married, self-isolating 4 days or more, economic hardship, and depression. For nap duration, being aged 18–25 years, retired, a smoker, and a social media user were at relatively higher risk. The GIS distribution showed that regional division areas with high COVID-19 exposure had higher rates of non-normal sleep duration. Sleep duration showed a regional heterogeneity across the regional divisions of the country that exhibited significant associations with a multitude of socioeconomic and health factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Students are one of the most vulnerable groups to suicide. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a Bangladeshi study was conducted assessing their suicide patterns regarding gender-based associations. But how has the pandemic changed the Bangladeshi students' suicide patterns is not studied yet, which is investigated herein. Besides, for the first time, this study provides GIS-based distribution of suicide cases across the country's administrative district. Methods: As Bangladesh has no suicide surveillance system, this study utilized media reporting suicide cases following the prior studies. A total of 127 students' suicide cases from March 2020 to March 2021 were finally analyzed after eliminating the duplicate ones, and data were synthesized following the prior studies. Arc-GIS was also used to distribute the suicide cases across the administrative district. Results: Results revealed that female (72.4%; n = 92/127) was more prone to die by suicide than males. About 42.5% of the cases were aged between 14 and 18 years (mean age 16.44 ± 3.512 years). The most common method of suicide was hanging (79.5%; n = 101), whereas relationship complexities (15.7%), being emotional (12.6%), not getting the desired one (11%), conflict with a family member (9.4%), academic failure (9.4%), mental health problem (8.7%), sexual complexities (6.3%), scolded or forbidden by parents (3.9%) were the prominent suicide causalities. In respect to gender and suicide patterns, only the suicide stressor was significantly distributed, whereas the method of suicide was significantly associated with GIS-based distribution. However, a higher number of suicide cases was documented in the capital (i.e. Dhaka) and the northern region than in its surrounding districts. Conclusions: The findings reported herein are assumed to be helpful to identify the gender-based suicide patterns and suicide-prone regions in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic to initiate suicide prevention programs of the risky students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently developed Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) is a seven-item uni-dimensional scale that assesses the severity of fears of COVID-19. Given the rapid increase of COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh, we aimed to translate and validate the FCV-19S in Bangla. The forward-backward translation method was used to translate the English version of the questionnaire into Bangla. The reliability and validity properties of the Bangla FCV-19S were rigorously psychometrically evaluated (utilizing both confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis) in relation to socio-demographic variables, national lockdown variables, and response to the Bangla Health Patient Questionnaire. The sample comprised 8550 Bangladeshi participants. The Cronbach α value for the Bangla FCV-19S was 0.871 indicating very good internal reliability. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis showed that the uni-dimensional factor structure of the FCV-19S fitted well with the data. The FCV-19S was significantly correlated with the nine-item Bangla Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-90) (r = 0.406, p < 0.001). FCV-19S scores were significantly associated with higher worries concerning lockdown. Measurement invariance of the FCV-19S showed no differences with respect to age or gender. The Bangla version of FCV-19S is a valid and reliable tool with robust psychometric properties which will be useful for researchers carrying out studies among the Bangla speaking population in assessing the psychological impact of fear from COVID-19 infection during this pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic is undoubtedly a major threat to the world. The preventive strategies designed to minimize the virus transmission by remaining at home, being isolated, and keeping social distance, which would substantially reform people's lifestyle, physical activity, eating habits, etc. Consequently, those measures might create a disturbance in weight management and overweight. Therefore, how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the physical activities of individuals and its impacts on the Body Mass Index (BMI) is explored herein. Methods: An online-based cross-sectional study collected data from 338 Bangladeshi adults in November 2020. The questionnaire included socio-demographics, health-related variables, physical activity-related variables, and diet measurement. Inferential statistics (i.e., chi-square test, McNemar test) were used to measure the associations between BMI and studied variables with a consideration of two scenarios ('before' and 'during' the pandemic inception), where p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Results showed that the prevalence of overweight was 30.5% 'before' the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased to 34.9% 'during' the pandemic; that means 4.4% of the participants significantly gained weight after the pandemic inception. There was no significant role of socio-demographic (e.g., gender, age, current residence, occupation) or physical activity-related factors (e.g., unavailability of outdoor space, not performing regular physical exercise, exercising with a partner) in changing the BMI status after the pandemic inception. However, following a proper diet plan during the COVID-19 pandemic was observed to decrease BMI status significantly. Conclusions: The present study suggests that a minor portion of the participants reported increasing their overweight status after the pandemic inception, whereas having a proper diet plan during the pandemic can significantly decrease BMI status. Therefore, the importance of the appropriate diet plan should be considered while implementing any policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In a densely populated country like Bangladesh, mental health-related burden and associated adverse outcomes are quite prevalent. However, exploration of sleep-related issues in general, and more specifically of insomnia during the COVID-19 pandemic has been scarce and restricted to a single location. The present study investigated the prevalence of insomnia and its predictive factors in the general population, and included Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis to identify regional heterogeneities of insomnia in Bangladesh.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Information related to socio-demographics, knowledge of COVID-19, behaviors related to COVID-19, fear of COVID-19, and insomnia were included in a questionnaire, and coupled with GIS-based spatial analysis to identify regional susceptibility to insomnia.Results: Approximately 30.4%, 13.1% and 2.8% of participants reported sub-threshold, moderate, and severe forms of insomnia, respectively. Independent predictive risk factors of insomnia symptoms included female gender, college education, urban residence, presence of comorbidities, using social media, taking naps during daytime, and fear of COVID-19. District-wide variations in the spatial distribution of fear of COVID-19 and insomnia were significantly associated.Conclusion: Insomnia is frequently present during a pandemic, and exhibits regional variability along with multifactorial determinants. These analytic approaches should enable improved detection and targeting of at-risk sectors of the population, and enable implementation of appropriate measures to ensure improved sleep quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As with other countries worldwide, lockdown measures during the COVID-19 outbreak in Bangladesh were sudden and unexpected, and have the capacity to elicit serious psychological consequences. The present study examined the psychological consequences of COVID-19 in Bangladesh during the lockdown period.Methods: A nationwide online cross-sectional survey study recruited 10,067 individuals covering all 64 districts in Bangladesh via social media (April 1-10, 2020). The survey comprised questions concerning socio-demographics, knowledge of COVID-19, behavior towards COVID-19, fear of COVID-19, insomnia, depression, and suicidal ideation. Logistic regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses were performed to identify the risk factors depression and suicidal ideation. Geographical information system (GIS)-based spatial analysis was used to identify district-wise susceptibility to depression and suicidal ideation.Findings: The prevalence rate of depression and suicidal ideation related to COVID-19 was 33% and 5%%. Common risk factors for suicidal ideation and depression included being young, being female, being a cigarette smoker, having comorbid diseases, having high scores on the Fear COVID-19 Scale, and having insomnia symptoms. GIS-based maps detected high depression and suicidal ideation in the capital of Bangladesh and the districts near the capital as well as coastal areas where COVID-19 prevalence was high, as compared with districts with no reported cases.Limitations: Self-reported scales and cross-sectional design of the study.Conclusion: COVID-19 is associated with major psychological impact across Bangladesh, underlining the need of strategically located psychological support measures and improved access to mental health services, especially among women and younger people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]