Background: The coexistence of undernutrition and obesity is an emerging problem for developing countries like Bangladesh. Anemia is another critical public health threat, prevalent predominantly among women and children. Undernutrition is linked with a higher risk of anemia, and lower dietary iron intake might be the possible reason. However, the risk of anemia among obese/overweight individuals is controversial. The study explores the relation of BMI with anemia and blood hemoglobin level among women and children in Bangladesh. Methods: Multiple statistical approaches were employed to nationally representative secondary data (BDHS 2011) on women (n = 5680) age 15–49 years and children (n = 2373) age 6–59 months to illuminate the relation between BMI and anemia. BMI was categorized according to the WHO recommended BMI category for Asian people. Descriptive statistics were used to measure mean hemoglobin level. Chi-square test, Pearson correlation, Two-way ANOVA, binary, ordinal, and restricted cubic splines (RCS) regression were used to study the association of BMI with anemia and hemoglobin level. Results: Chi-square test reveals significant association, though not intense, among BMI and anemia categories of women (15–49 years) (χ2 ≥99, p1.5; Obese: OR ~0.5) reveal that the risk of anemia was higher among underweight and lower among obese/overweight women compared to normal women. Lower anemia risk among richest women indicates probable higher dietary iron intake among obese/overweight women. Conclusion: In the current study, women with overweight/obesity from Bangladesh were shown to have lower likelihood of being anemic, while underweight women more likely to be anemic. However, no relation between BMI and anemia was found among children.

Considering the severity of the effects of COVID-19 on psychological health and quality of life, the present study investigates the direct effects of government strategies and social distancing and the moderating effect of emotional recovery on psychological distress and quality of life using the tenets of the theory of attachment and learned helplessness. The snowball sampling technique was used to recruit respondents from Bangladesh who completed a self-administered questionnaire via Google Forms, which provided cross-sectional data. The results revealed that both social distancing and government strategies have significant negative influences on psychological distress. Besides, government strategies have a significant positive influence on social distancing. Although psychological distress has a significant negative influence on quality of life, emotional recovery shows no moderating effect on the relationship between psychological distress and quality of life during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study provides insights for regulatory bodies and policymakers for developing effective policy interventions to ensure the well-being of people during this pandemic. Finally, the study highlights the implications for both theory and practice and a few notes for further research.

Nutrition is an important predictor of an athlete's performance. It is more important for particularly those athletes who are in the growing stage (adolescents). This study aimed to assess their current level of knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP) of nutrition and to predict potential factors impacting their level of these KAP. A cross-sectional study was conducted among adolescent trainee athletes selected conveniently from 11 sports departments (e.g. cricket, football, hockey, etc.) of Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan (BKSP). A semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Anthropometric measurements (e.g. height, weight, BMI, BF %) were taken using appropriate methods. The data were analyzed using R (v3.6.1) and Python Jupyter Notebook. Descriptive statistics, t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and logistic regression were used to determine the relationship between dependent and independent variables. A total number of 260 participants were enrolled in this study, most of them (86%) were male. Their mean age was 15.50 ± 1.83 ranging from 12-19 years. More than half of the participants had good nutrition knowledge (n = 149, 57.3%). Fifty-seven percent of participants had a positive attitude (n = 146) and 57.69% (n = 150) had a good level of practices regarding nutrition. Age (p = 0.007), gender (p = 0.004), department of training (p = 0.0034), and duration of sports training (p = 0.004) of participants were significantly associated with knowledge, while only age and BMI were significantly associated with practices. Athletes with less body fat were more likely to have good nutrition practice behavior (AOR 0.895; 95% CI 0.83, 0.96; p < 0.05) and nutrition knowledge was positively associated with nutrition practice (AOR 2.335; 95% CI 1.405, 3.88; p = 0.001). Knowledge, attitude, and practices level observed among many of our participants was satisfactory. Previous nutrition training was found as a potentially modifiable factor of good nutrition knowledge and good nutrition knowledge was found to be a predictor of good practice score. Thus, it is necessary to provide appropriate nutrition information to adolescent athletes through proper educational training and intervention on a regular basis.

Dyslipidemia is considered a significant modifiable risk factor for type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and has become one of the emerging health problems throughout the world. In Bangladesh, data on dyslipidemia among newly diagnosed T2DM patients are comparatively inadequate. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of dyslipidemia and its associated risk factors in newly diagnosed T2DM patients. This cross-sectional study was conducted by a well-structured questionnaire from 132 newly diagnosed type-2 diabetic patients attending the Mujibur Rahman Memorial Diabetic Hospital in Kushtia, Bangladesh. Data regarding socio-demographic, anthropometric, fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) were collected from all the respondents. The association between dyslipidemia and its associated factors was analyzed using the multivariate logit regression model. The findings suggest that the prevalence rate of dyslipidemia was 75.7% in female and 72.6% in male T2DM patients. The odds of having dyslipidemia were 1.74 (95% Cl: 1.58–1.87) times significantly higher in female (p<0.001). The other factors associated with dyslipidemia encompassed age between 30–39 years (OR: 2.32, 95% CI: 1.97–2.69), obesity (OR: 2.63, 95% CI: 2.27–2.90), waist circumferences of male ≥90 and female ≥80 (OR: 1.65, 95% CI: 1.59–1.89), hypertensive patients (OR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.45–1.74), physically inactive (OR: 3.25, 95% CI: 1.84–4.68), and current smoker or tobacco user (OR: 1.93, 95% CI: 1.85–2.13). This study concluded that the high prevalence of dyslipidemia was found among newly diagnosed type-2 diabetes patients and associated with gender, age, BMI, waist circumference, poor physical activity, and smoking, or tobacco use. This result will support increase awareness of dyslipidemia and its associated risk factors among type-2 diabetes patients.

Background: Early life nutrition plays a critical role in the development of better health and nutrition in adulthood. However, assessing the nutritional status of Bangladeshi children and adolescents through measurement of body composition using skinfold thickness is barely studied. The current study aims to determine children’s body composition and nutritional status, and contributing factors among children aged 2 to 15 years in the northern part of Bangladesh.Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study done in Bangladesh. Anthropometric methods, including multiple skinfold thickness and basic anthropometric and socio-demographic characteristics, were used. Body composition was calculated from multiple skinfold thicknesses using the standard regression equation. Nutritional status was measured using Z score according to WHO 2007 reference standard. A total of 330 children from Naogaon, Bogra and Kurigram districts in Bangladesh were examined from April 2019 to September 2019.Results: The Nutritional status of 2–15 years old child is exceedingly poor in the northern part of Bangladesh. Fat mass and fat-free mass were higher among children from Kurigram district than from Bogra and Naogaon district. Body fat percentages and arm fat area were greater among female children than males. The overall prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting was around 25%, 32% and 29%, respectively, and the rate was higher among girls and children aged 2–5 years. The average SD score for weight-for-age, height-for-age, and BMI-for-age was -1.295, -0.937 and -1.009. The median weight-for-age and height-for-age Z scores of boys and girls were below the WHO reference percentile rank. Girls were twice (OR:1.951, CI:1.150–3.331) as likely to suffer from being underweight than boys. Children who don’t practice handwashing are three times (OR:3.531, CI:1.657–7.525) more likely to be underweight. Children become underweight and stunted when their family income is not sufficient to maintain their nutritional requirements.Conclusions: The children of the three northern districts had a poor nutritional status, and family income was the potential contributing factor. Therefore, interventions like the promotion of income-generating activities and integrated approaches to ensuring food diversification could be an option to address the nutritional problem of children of the three northern districts of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is making progress toward achieving zero dog-mediated rabies deaths by 2030, a global goal set in 2015. Drawing from multiple datasets, including patient immunisation record books and mass dog vaccination (MDV) databases, we conducted a comprehensive analysis between 2011 and 2023 to understand the effectiveness of rabies control programmes and predict human rabies cases in Bangladesh by 2030 using time-series forecasting models. We also compared rabies virus sequences from GenBank in Bangladesh and other South Asian countries. The estimated dog population in Bangladesh was determined to be 1,668,140, with an average dog population density of 12.83 dogs/km² (95% CI 11.14-14.53) and a human-to-dog ratio of 86.70 (95% CI 76.60-96.80). The MDV campaign has led to the vaccination of an average of 21,295 dogs (95% CI 18,654-23,935) per district annually out of an estimated 26,065 dogs (95% CI 22,898-29,230). A declining trend in predicted and observed human rabies cases has been identified, suggesting that Bangladesh is poised to make substantial progress towards achieving the 'Zero by 30' goal, provided the current trajectory continues. The phylogenetic analysis shows that rabies viruses in Bangladesh belong to the Arctic-like-1 group, which differs from those in Bhutan despite sharing a common ancestor. Bangladesh's One Health approach demonstrated that an increase in MDV and anti-rabies vaccine (ARV) resulted in a decline in the relative risk of human rabies cases, indicating that eliminating dog-mediated human rabies could be achievable. The study was supported by the Communicable Disease Control (CDC) Division of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.