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The detection of unusual patterns in the occurrence of diseases is an important challenge to health workers interested in early identification of epidemics. The objective of this study was to provide an early signal of infectious disease epidemics by analyzing the disease dynamics. A two-stage monitoring system was applied, which consists of univariate Box-Jenkins model or autoregressive integrated moving average model and subsequent tracking signals from several statistical process-control charts. The analyses were illustrated on January 2000-August 2009 national measles data reported monthly to the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) in Bangladesh. The results of this empirical study revealed that the most adequate model for the occurrences of measles in Bangladesh was the seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (3, 1, 0) (0, 1, 1)12 model, and the statistical process-control charts detected no measles epidemics during September 2007-August 2009. The two-stage monitoring system performed well to capture the measles dynamics in Bangladesh without detection of an epidemic because of high measles-vaccination coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Food insecurity indicates the difficulty of constantly obtaining adequate food because of limited economic resources. Food insecurity challenges the desired health outcomes. Although extensive literature has examined the associations between food security and health, low-wage informal sector workers have been less frequently addressed in this topic. The present study has focused on food insecurity among the workers working in the informal sector enterprises who experienced entrenched disadvantage during COVID-19 and examines the relationship between food insecurity and health status as measured by self-reported physical and mental health conditions., Methods: This study has utilized cross-sectional data collected from workers working in informal manufacturing and business enterprises in Dhaka city of Bangladesh. The Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) with eight items is used to screen for food insecurity, and the Short Form 12v2 (SF12v2) scale with 12 questions, and validated for use with Bengali respondents, is used to measure the health status of the informal workers. A health production function has been constructed where the health status (both physical and mental) of workers is associated with food insecurity and other socio-economic and health care factors. Empirical analyses of the study have included descriptive statistics, mean score comparisons, and multivariate regression analyses to identify the predictive factors of the physical and mental health status of the workers., Results: A moderate to severe food insecurity is found to be responsible for the poor health status (both physical and mental) of the selected working group population. Moreover, age over 40 years, having a large family, dissatisfaction with the work place, and the prevalence of occupational health risks are linked to lower physical health, while dissatisfaction with the work place and the incidence of severe diseases contribute to poor mental health status along with food insecurity., Conclusions: Extending social and economic protection towards health coverage and basic consumption is suggested as an immediate action to save lives and ensure productivity of the informal workers. Besides, an increase in income and ensuring decent working conditions are also recommended for the health, safety and satisfaction of workers working in informal sector enterprises., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

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., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

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.

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., Competing Interests: Conflict of InterestThe authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.., (© The Author(s) 2020.)

Background: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a serious violation of women's human rights and a dominant chronic global public health problem. Although it is suspected that epidemic-induced economic downturns have fueled the IPV, enough empirical literature are not available to make a consensus. Against this backdrop, the present study has attempted to explore the prevalence and associated factors of IPV amid the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: The study has included Bangladesh as the study area and collected data from married women who lived with her intimate partner. Total of 605 women were reached and 84.30% (510) women, aged 16-45 with mean age 30.12 (±6.27) years, provided their consent and required information. The study has employed the translated version of WHO multi-country study tools to screen the IPV., Results: This cross-sectional study has found the prevalence of IPV about 45.29%, where 44.12% are emotionally abused, 15.29% physically, 10.59% sexually, and 19.22% are abused either physically or sexually. The study has found that types of marriage, area of residence, women's employment status, husband's age and level of education, family income status, and pandemic induced economic downturns were the associated factors of intimate partner violence amid the pandemic., Limitations: Self-reported cross-sectional study has some methodological limitations, and the present study is not free from them., Conclusions: The study contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the associated factors of IPV amid the pandemic, which will help to make preventive policy., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2021 The Author(s).)

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., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: Preventing depression and helping individuals to become more resilient to depression, awareness-related programs have been suggested. To implement such programs, depression literacy (D-Lit) assessment is needed. However, little information is known about it in Bangladesh, and this gap was addressed - in the present study., Methods: An online-based cross-sectional survey was carried out among 404 university students (62.6% male; 69.3% undergraduates, mean age = 22.35 ± 2.69 years). The survey included questions asking about socio-demographics, personal and family depression history, its' stigma and related programs, and the 20-item Bangla Depression Literacy questionnaire., Results: The results showed a mean score of 9.30 (SD = 2.75; out of total 20 scores) on the Bangla D-Lit scale. Participants had very limited knowledge of the psychotic symptoms, impact, and management subscales. Moreover, nine items out of the total twenty-items were answered correctly by at least 50% of the participants. There were no significant D-Lit score differences based on gender and past-year personal history, and family depression history. Structural equation modeling indicated that having knowledge about depression and attending depression seminars were positively related to elevated depression literacy., Limitations: The study has some limitations due to its cross-sectional study nature and modest sample size. In addition, there the assessment of depression did not use a validated psychometric instrument and the D-Lit comprises multiple-choice responses so the real rate of depression literacy may be even lower than that found because participants could have guessed answers that they did not know., Conclusions: Findings from this study suggest that depression literacy was low in the population studied and the findings here will help to facilitate mental health literacy awareness programs in the context of Bangladeshi students as well as those outside the country., (© 2020 The Authors.)

The objective of this study was to observe the drug interaction between levofloxacin and omeprazole using urinary excretion data. Levofloxacin tablet and omeprazole capsule were administered separately as well as in combination in fasting condition with a wash out period of two weeks after each administration. Urine was collected at different time intervals of 0, 0-2, 2-4, 4-8, 8-12, 12-24, 24-36 and 36-48 hr post-dose and analyzed using a validated HPLC with UV detection. Different pharmacokinetic parameters for both drugs were determined using non-compartmental method. The maximum rate of excretion (R(max)) of levofloxacin was not decreased significantly when co-administered with omeprazole (p<0.05). Similarly no significant difference (p = 0.350) was observed for Rmax of omeprazole when co-administered with levofloxacin. Again the fraction of levofloxacin excreted (f(e)/f) was not changed significantly (p = 0.953) due to the co-administration of omeprazole. Similarly fraction of omeprazole excreted (f(e)/f) also remained unaffected (p = 0.672) when co-administered with levofloxacin. No significant change was observed for the area under the rate of excretion versus midpoint of time interval curve from zero to 48 hours (AURC(0-48)) for levofloxacin and omeprazole (p = 0.816 and 0.792 respectively) when administered separately and co-administered with each other. The study clearly revealed that levofloxacin and omeprazole do not undergo any kind of interactions when administered together. So it can be concluded that these two drugs can be prescribed together to achieve optimum therapeutic activity.

Fruits of Tamarindus indica were evaluated for their effects on lipid profile, systolic and diastolic blood pressure and body weight in human subjects. Dried and pulverized pulp of T. indica fruits, at a dose of 15 mg/kg body weight, was found to reduce total cholesterol level (p = 0.031) and LDL-cholesterol level (p = 0.004) to a significant extent. Though the fruits exerted no conspicuous effect on body weight and systolic blood pressure, it significantly reduced the diastolic pressure as confirmed by independent sample t-test at 5% significance level.

Mg and Zn are essential elements in biological system. They are essential for enzymatic activity, maintaining three-dimensional structure of proteins, for the synthesis of nucleic acids and proteins etc. Deficiency of Mg and Zn causes different life threatening diseases. That is why the optimum level of Mg and Zn must be maintained for all biological systems. The experiment was aimed to evaluate the effect of magnesium and zinc on the efficacy of antibiotic agents against different microorganisms. It has been observed that the antibiotic activity of an antibiotic agent increased significantly with concomitant use of Mg salt at a concentration ranging from 3-9 microg per antibiotic disc. Similarly, Zn salt increased the activity of an antibiotic at a concentration ranging from 9-15 microg per antibiotic disc. The experiment revealed that concomitant administration of antibiotic with Mg or Zn salt not only will supplement the deficiency of these electrolytes but also will increase the activity of antibiotics against different bacterial strains.