Search

PurposeConditional Cash Transfer (CCT) aims to assist expectant mothers in low-income households. It might address the insufficient prenatal and postnatal healthcare services in rural areas of low-income nations, including Bangladesh. However, the effectiveness of such intervention is rarely investigated in rural Bangladesh. The study aims to explore the impact of CCT on certain health outcomes of expectant mothers in southwestern rural Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachThe study applied the quasi-experimental Propensity Score Matching method to assess the effectiveness of CCT in health outcomes of expectant mothers. The authors also deployed logistic regression to explore the predictors of three health issues – blood pressure, hemoglobin adequacy and morning sickness.FindingsThe Average Treatment Effect shows that the CCT program significantly improves maternal health by lowering the extent of blood pressure and morning sickness and enhancing the hemoglobin adequacy of the CCT recipient women compared to the non-recipient. The result reveals that CCT beneficiary status as well as the education and immunization are positively and significantly associated with normal blood pressure and hemoglobin adequacy. CCT is also a negative predictor of morning sickness. The study recommends to expand the coverage of the CCT program and also emphasize on the improvement of education, training and immunization for rural pregnant women.Originality/valueTo assist in scaling purchasing power and nutritious food for poor pregnant and lactating mothers in low-income households, “Nobojatra” project initiated the CCTs in the southwest region of Bangladesh. Yet, the impact of such cash transfers on their health outcomes is rarely explored in the context of Bangladesh. This study provides evidence regarding the effectiveness of cash transfers to pregnant women of low-income households in rural Bangladesh.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-08-2022-0512

Background: Worldwide, mental health issues constitute a substantial threat to the social, economic, and mental wellbeing of people and contribute significantly to many fatalities each year. In Bangladesh, people with mental health issues typically delay contacting health professionals because they rely on traditional or religious healers. Moreover, the situation is exacerbated by a lack of awareness, social stigma and negative perception from families and the community towards sufferers of mental health issues. Therefore, this paper investigates the social perception and stigmatisation of mental health patients and their caregivers in Khulna city of Bangladesh. Methods: Data were collected from university students who had concurring mental health issues and from their closest caregivers who had in-depth knowledge and willingness to take care for the patients. Following the criteria for data collection, eight (8) mental health patients and five (5) caregivers were purposively selected for this research. An unstructured in-depth interview guide was used for the confidential data collection process between November to December 2021, and each interview lasted for, on average, 40-50 minutes. Results: This study used thematic analysis to present the results, and the findings showed that: mental health patients seek both medical and spiritual support to recover. Mental health patients with positive family support improved quicker than those with the opposite. However, negative social perception and stigmatisation are the key impediments for mental health patients and their families to discuss their issues with relatives and communities to get support or to seek remedies. Moreover, the commonality of social stigmas, such as labelling mental health problems equal to ‘madness’, hinders disclosure to family members, peers, and the community.Conclusion and recommendations: In Bangladesh, the majority of mental health patients are stigmatized without receiving emotional support. Hence, we suggest nationwide community-based awareness-building programs to promote positive perceptions against mental-health disorders. Besides, counselling and awareness-building programs for effective prevention against non-scientific remedies, such as spiritual healing; and diagnosis at the primary stage of sickness and medication, are recommended for early detection and better medical assistance.

The paper concentrates on the measurement of the total factor productivity of dairy farms in the south-west region of Bangladesh. The study used stochastic frontier approach for analyzing the technical efficiency of the dairy farms. Here, seventy dairy farms are considered as a sample. The data reveals that the number of labor and the quantity of food are statistically significant at a 1 percent level of significance.The data also manifests that numerous farm-specific characteristics, i.e. farm size, farmer’s age, and amount of credit are statistically significant at 1 percent, 10 percent, and 10 percent respectively. The range of technical efficiency for the farms varies from 26 percent (minimum) to 95 percent (maximum) where the mean value is 68 percent for the dairy farms of the south-west region. This implies that an average output of milk production falls 32 percent short of maximum possible level. Hence, there is scope of improvement in this sector. Therefore, to improve the farm productivity government should provide proper training, and medical treatment facilities for the farms so that the animals become healthy. If it is possible to do so then the farm level production frontier will shift upward.

Background Any form of long-term physical or mental impairment might negatively influence health-related quality of life (HRQoL). HRQoL, as an independent concept, covers a wide range of characteristics that includes physical, mental, social, and spiritual functions. People with disabilities are continuously exposed to multiple barriers that deteriorate their HRQoL. It also creates impairment in performing physical activities. However, experts opine regular physical exercise as an intervention to help disabled people. This research aims to investigate the association between disability and physical activity with HRQoL among the adult population in Australia. Design A retrospective cohort study. Methods This study utilized the most recent 19 waves of data (2002–2020) from the nationally representative Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey. Component summary scores such as physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS), and SF-6D utility scores were utilized to measure HRQoL. Random-effects GLS regression technique was fitted to estimate the association between disability and physical activity with HRQoL, after adjusting for a range of socio-demographic and health-related characteristics. Results Disability was negatively associated with the PCS (-5.95), MCS (-2.70) and SF-6D (-0.060) compared with non-disabled counterparts. However, respondents engaged in the recommended level of physical activity had substantial gain in PCS (b = 0.96), MCS (1.57), and SF-6D (0.021) scores. Besides, the results showed that performing the recommended level of physical activity in the presence of disability has lessen the negative effect of disability/ positive moderating effect of physical activity on PCS, MCS, and SF-6D scores by 1.84 points, 0.82 points, and 0.013 percentage points, respectively. Conclusion This study found an inverse association between disability and HRQoL among Australian adults. However, physical activity was associated with improved HRQoL. Therefore, public health interventions, such as the orientation of physical activities, have a higher potential to dwindle the burden regarding HRQoL.

The study concentrates on assessing health hazards caused by pesticide spray in rice cultivation in the South-west region of Bangladesh. The data particularized that the probability of facing discomfort due to pesticide exposure is 79 percent. The cost-of-illness (Mitigation cost and income loss due to sickness) and avertive action are considered to estimate pesticide use costs. For health cost estimation, a household survey on rice fanners was conducted. The data were collected through an interview method by using a well-structured questionnaire. Logit, Probit, Poission regression, and Negative binomial regression models have been applied in this study. The predicted probability of falling sick from pesticide-related symptoms is significantly higher among individuals who apply pesticides with high chemical concentrations. For both the logit and probit models, it is statistically significant at a 5 percent significance level. On the other hand, an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) application, first aid knowledge, avertive action, treatment facilities, and knowledge level help reduce the probability of diseases caused by pesticide exposure. Finally, the study finds BDT 5273 per person per season as the health cost for pesticide application-oriented health hazard.

To eliminate TB from the country by the year 2030, the Bangladesh National Tuberculosis (TB) Program is providing free treatment to the TB patients since 1993. However, the patients are still to make Out-of-their Pocket (OOP) payment, particularly before their enrollment Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS). This places a significant economic burden on poor-households. We, therefore, aimed to estimate the Catastrophic Health Expenditure (CHE) due to TB as well as understand associated difficulties faced by the families when a productive family member age (15–55) suffers from TB. The majority of the OOP expenditures occur before enrolling in. We conducted a cross-sectional study using multistage sampling in the areas of Bangladesh where Building Resources Across Communities (BRAC) provided TB treatment during June 2016. In total, 900 new TB patients, aged 15–55 years, were randomly selected from a list collected from BRAC program. CHE was defined as the OOP payments that exceeded 10% of total consumption expenditure of the family and 40% of total non-food expenditure/capacity-to-pay. Regular and Bayesian simulation techniques with 10,000 replications of re-sampling with replacement were used to examine robustness of the study findings. We also used linear regression and logit model to identify the drivers of OOP payments and CHE, respectively. The average total cost-of-illness per patient was 124 US$, of which 68% was indirect cost. The average CHE was 4.3% of the total consumption and 3.1% of non-food expenditure among the surveyed households. The poorest quintile of the households experienced higher CHE than their richest counterpart, 5% vs. 1%. Multiple regression model showed that the risk of CHE increased among male patients with smear-negative TB and delayed enrolling in the DOTS. Findings suggested that specific groups are more vulnerable to CHE who needs to be brought under innovative safety-net schemes.

Background Overweight and obesity impose a significant health burden in Australia, predominantly the middle-aged and older adults. Studies of the association between obesity and chronic diseases are primarily based on cross-sectional data, which is insufficient to deduce a temporal relationship. Using nationally representative panel data, this study aims to investigate whether obesity is a significant risk factor for type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, asthma, arthritis, and depression in Australian middle-aged and older adults. Methods Longitudinal data comprising three waves (waves 9, 13 and 17) of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey were used in this study. This study fitted longitudinal random-effect logistic regression models to estimate the between-person differences in the association between obesity and chronic diseases. Results The findings indicated that obesity was associated with a higher prevalence of chronic diseases among Australian middle-aged and older adults. Obese adults (Body Mass Index [BMI] ≥ 30) were at 12.76, 2.05, 1.97, 2.25, and 1.96, times of higher risks of having type 2 diabetes (OR: 12.76, CI 95%: 8.88–18.36), heart disease (OR: 2.05, CI 95%: 1.54–2.74), asthma (OR: 1.97, CI 95%: 1.49–2.62), arthritis (OR: 2.25, 95% CI: 1.90–2.68) and depression (OR: 1.96, CI 95%: 1.56–2.48), respectively, compared with healthy weight counterparts. However, the study did not find any evidence of a statistically significant association between obesity and cancer. Besides, gender stratified regression results showed that obesity is associated with a higher likelihood of asthma (OR: 2.64, 95% CI: 1.84–3.80) among female adults, but not in the case of male adults. Conclusion Excessive weight is strongly associated with a higher incidence of chronic disease in Australian middle-aged and older adults. This finding has clear public health implications. Health promotion programs and strategies would be helpful to meet the challenge of excessive weight gain and thus contribute to the prevention of chronic diseases.

Down memory lane of the economy of Bangladesh, international migration has been a pillar to the economy. Firstly, the study deals with the factors affecting destination preference of the migrant-sending household and then it tries to screne out the impact of international migration on the household welfare from the lens of diversified destination preferences. Considering sample size of 3782 household, the study conducted the entire research with the secondary data of Household Income and Expenditure Survey Bangladesh, 2016. Sorting the migrated countries among seven regions, Multinomial Logistic Regression has been used to find out the determinants behind migrants’ destination preferences. Additionally, to measure the household welfare based on migrant’s destination preference, the Ordinary Least Squares regression model and Quantile regression model have been used. Therefore, the result exhibits that migrant characteristic like age, gender, years of schooling, and household characteristics like heads’ age, sex, schooling year, region, and earning status plays a significant role in deciding the migration destination. It is also evident that economic and subjective welfare varies among the households for sending migrants in different regions. Total expenditure and wealth index decrease to the households who send migrants to South-East Asia rather than Middle-East. The wealth score is higher for the households who send migrants to Europe, North-America, and Oceania over Middle-East. Subjective welfare index also varies among the household based on choosing migration destination. Therefore, it can be concluded that destination preference affects the economic and subjective welfare of the household.

Tourism is increasing at the same pace as the economic development of Bangladesh. The Sixty Dome Mosque and the Sundarbans are the two world heritage sites that have been the major sources of sightseeing for the last few decades. To identify the economic potentials of these two heritage sites, the study uses travel cost method (TCM) and contingent valuation method (CVM). Along with socio-economic elements, travelling habit and site-specific facilities also positively determine the extent of travel demand. Meanwhile, consumer surplus retrieved from TCM shows that the two sites can gain annual aggregate benefit worth US$ 193.51 million. In addition, the use-value estimation suggests that the two sites can elicit aggregate tourism benefit worth US$ 0.29 million annually based on the entry fee. Moreover, each of the tourists is willing to pay US$ 5.78 on an average if the site-centric facilities are upgraded in both sites. US$ 3803.44 million of national conservation value prioritises the preservation of the two sites. Therefore, a long-term preservation funding plan should be initiated beforehand.

Manufacturing firms are playing a dominant role for economic development of Bangladesh after it’s independence. Bakery firms are considered as an important part of manufacturing firms. In this paper authors analyzed the productivity status of bakery firms. Labor, capital, raw materials and energy are used as input for analysis of the productivity of bakery firms. The data provide strong evidence of increase in output if raw materials are available. If labor, capital and energy held constant a1 percent increase in raw materials increase output by 0.775percent. It is significant at 1percent significant level. The joint hypothesis tests proof that input and output are not unrelated. The returns to scale assessment manifests presence of increasing returns to scale in bakery firms. The firms also experiences availability of cheap inputs. It is one of the key factors for expansion of bakery firms in Khulna region of Bangladesh. Owners of baking firms should give more emphasize on wealth maximization rather profit maximization. If it is possible to nourish bakery firms properly, in near future it will contribute a dominant role in boosting the GDP of Bangladesh.