Improving maternal health and reducing maternal mortality rate (MMR) are major challenges for Bangladesh. Utilization of antenatal care (ANC) services from skilled professionals and deliveries in health facilities are therefore important to tackle MMR and socioeconomic differences play a major part for these service utilization. The purpose of the current study was to identify the level and determinants of ANC and health facility delivery care utilization in Subornochor upazila (a rural sub-district), Noakhali, Bangladesh. The study was a community based cross sectional study. A total of 360 women (15-49 years) who had a child in the last five years preceding the survey were interviewed and studied. The results of overall analysis showed that only 34.6% women received ANC from health professionals, whereas mere 5.3% deliveries were taken place at health facilities. Mother's education, partner's occupation, family income and area of residence were significant predictors of these services utilization. Place of receiving ANC was an influencing factor of health facility delivery. Women who didn't receive ANC in health facilities were almost three times (OR: 2.95, 95% CI: 1.06-7.9) less likely to deliver in health facilities compared to the women who received ANC. The study underscores the urgent need of addressing socioeconomic differences and targeted interventions might help the women who need to utilize these services more often. The study also pointed out huge differences of these services utilization with national average. Though further investigation is necessary but emphasis should be given more to address the barriers of maternal health service.

Despite of recent progress in reducing the incidence of child malnutrition in Bangladesh, there are large disparities exists across gender, geographical regions, ethnic and economic groups. Adivasi‟s (tribal people) are regarded as one of the most exploited and deprived section of the society and their children are one of the worst victims of under-nutrition. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence and associated factors of malnutrition in different tribal children aged 24-59 months. Data was extracted from a project named “Adivasi Fisheries Project (AFP)” and the study considered 125 children from four purposively selected household (HH) clusters of four ethnic groups (Santal, Garo, Oraon, and Hajong) by quota-sampling design using the farmer field school (FFS) as the sampling frame. Malnutrition status was determined by measuring underweight, stunting and wasting and the associations between variables and malnutrition status were found out. Regression analysis then confirmed the contributions of risk factors. The prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting was 28%, 42% and 13% respectively. Malnutrition was found to be higher among Hajong and Oraon compared to Santal and Garo. Significant association was observed between family income and malnutrition status. Having a family income below 4000 BDT (~$50) significantly increased the risk for underweight, stunting and wasting. Moreover, younger mother‟s (age < 20 years) was more prone to have underweight and wasted children than their older counterparts. The study pinpointed that the standard of living of adivasi (tribal) people need to be improved and socio-demographic issues need to be addressed to tackle the malnutrition status of their children.Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. June 2018, 4(2): 178-185

Background: The global pandemic of COVID-19 is posing the biggest threat to humanity through its ubiquitous effect of unfathomable magnitude. It has been responsible for over four hundred thousand death worldwide to date. There has been evidence that various comorbidities have a higher risk associated with case fatality. Although COVID-19 is a viral disease, there might be an association between different comorbidities and the occurrence of the disease. Method: Sociodemographic and medical history data on different comorbidities such as asthma, diabetes, liver disease, lung disease, heart disease, kidney disease, hypertension, and obesity were collected by a web-based self-reported survey between 25th March 2020 to 4th June 2020 by the Nexoid United Kingdom. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were done using these risk factors as independent variables. Result: A total of 780,961 participants from 183 different countries and territories participated in this study. Among them, 1516 participants were diagnosed with COVID-19 prior to this study. A significant risk association was observed for age above 60 years, female gender as well as different pre-existing disease conditions such as diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease, and heart diseases. Asthma and diabetes were the major dominant comorbidities among patients, and patients with existing diabetes were 1.464 (AOR: 1.464; 95% CI: 1.228-1.744), more likely to develop the disease than others who did not diagnose as diseased. Conclusion: Older adults, female as well as people with comorbidities such as diabetes mellitus, heart disease, kidney disease, and liver disease, are the most vulnerable population for COVID-19. However, further studies should be carried out to explain the pathway of these risk associations.