The International Journal of MCH and AIDS (IJMA) is a United States-based multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed, global health, open access journal that publishes original research articles, review articles, clinical studies, evaluation studies, policy analyses, and commentaries/opinions in all areas of maternal, infant, child health, (MCH) and HIV/AIDS in low and middle-income countries, and in populations that are experiencing health disparities (i.e. inequalities) around the world. The journal focuses on the social determinants of health and disease as well as on the disparities in the burden of communicable, non-communicable, and neglected tropical diseases affecting infants, children, women, adults, and families across the life span in developing countries and around the world.

Healthy life expectancy (HALE) at birth is an important indicator of health status and quality of life of a country’s population. However, little is known about the determinants of HALE as yet globally or even country-specific level. Thus, we examined the factors that are associated with HALE at birth in low- and lower-middle-income countries. In accordance with the World Bank (WB) classification seventy-nine low- and lower-middle-income countries were selected for the study. Data on HALE, demographic, socioeconomic, social structural, health, and environmental factors from several reliable sources, such as the World Health Organization, the United Nations Development Program, Population Reference Bureau, WB, Heritage Foundation, Transparency International, Freedom House, and International Center for Prison Studies were obtained as selected countries. Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were performed to reach the research objectives. The lowest and highest HALE were observed in Sierra Leone (44.40 years) and in Sri Lanka (67.00 years), respectively. The mean years of schooling, total fertility rate (TFR), physician density, gross national income per capita, health expenditure, economic freedom, carbon dioxide emission rate, freedom of the press, corruption perceptions index, prison population rate, and achieving a level of health-related millennium development goals (MDGs) were revealed as the correlates of HALE. Among all the correlates, the mean years of schooling, TFR, freedom of the press, and achieving a level of health-related MDGs were found to be the most influential factors. To increase the HALE in low- and lower-middle-income countries, we suggest that TFR is to be reduced as well as to increase the mean years of schooling, freedom of the press, and the achievement of a level of health-related MDGs.

Background: The burden of tobacco use is shifting from developed to developing countries. This study aimed to explore the different types of tobacco use, and to identify the determinant factors associated with the tobacco use among ever-married men in Bangladesh. Data and methods: Data of 3,771 ever-married men, 15–54 years of age were extracted from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2007. Prevalence rate, chi-square (Χ²) test, and binary logistic regression analysis were used as the statistical tools to analyze the data. Results: Tobacco use through smoking (58.68%) was found to be higher than that of chewing (21.63%) among men, which was significantly more prevalent among the poorest, less educated, and businessmen. In bivariate analysis, all the socioeconomic factors were found significantly associated with tobacco use; while in multivariate analysis, age, education, wealth index, and occupation were identified as the significant predictors. Conclusion: Tobacco use was found to be remarkably common among males in Bangladesh. The high prevalence of tobacco use suggests that there is an urgent need for developing intervention plans to address this major public health problem in Bangladesh.

As the divorce rate has risen globally, many social scientists have been trying to understand the factors that hold marriages together or contribute to divorce. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the socioeconomic factors affecting the marriage duration of reproductive-aged women in Natore District; Bangladesh, with a cross-sectional study conducted in 2020 in Lalpur Upazila. Data were collected from 426 divorced women of reproductive-age (15-49 years) in face-to-face interviews using a snowball sampling technique through a structured questionnaire. A bivariate analysis was used to identify the factors associated with marriage duration. The effects of each associated factor on the length of coupled life were identified with a multivariate binary logistic regression model. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve and an area under the curve (AUC) were used to determine the cutoff scores for significant predictors of a marriage’s duration. The results of bivariate analysis revealed that the respondent’s age at the time of divorce, education, father alive at the time of divorce, mother’s education, husband’s age at marriage, his education and occupation, kinship with husband, dowry, and force to give dowry are significantly associated with the duration of a marriage. Finally, the binary logistic regression model identified that the respondent’s age at the time of divorce, education, father alive at the time of divorce, husband’s age at marriage, husband’s occupation, and dowry as the determinant factors of the duration of couple of the respondents. Preventing women’s early marriage, a partner’s late marriage, and dowry, as well as increasing a women’s education would increase the duration of a marriage.

The main objective of this study is to search better prediction result of rainy seasonal rainfall (15 June-15 August). A correlation between rainfall of Bengali rainy seasons at Rangpur, Dhaka, Barisal and Sylhet and global sea surface temperature (SST) of different areas of the world was studied by using the both data of 1975- 2008 years with the help of the Climate Predictability Tool (CPT) to find more positive correlated SST with observed rainfall and use as predictor for giving the prediction of the year 2009. Using SST of one month before rainy season as predictor, the positive deviation of predicted rainfall from observed rainfall was 1.34 mm/day at Sylhet and 0.9 mm/day at Dhaka. The negative deviation of mean rainfall was 1.16 mm/day at Rangpur and 1.10 mm/day at Barisal. Again, using of starting one month SST of rainy season as predictor, positive deviation of predicted rainfall from observed rainfall was 4.03 mm/day at Sylhet. The positive deviation of daily mean rainfall was found 6.58 mm/day at Dhaka and 6.23 mm/day over southern Bangladesh. The study reveals that sea surface temperature (SST) of one month before rainy season was better predictor than SST of starting month of rainy season.

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