Assessing the mental health of slum dwellers: an ordinal logistic approach.

BACKGROUND: Stress, depression and anxiety are prevalent mental health concerns that are getting worse every day in the context of rapidly expanding megacities, where a rising number of people live in slums. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the state of mental health and related variables underlying mental health issues among the impoverished population. METHODOLOGY: A total of 384 slum residents from the Khulna division responded to our questionnaire, which included the DASS-21 and other pertinent questions. Using ordinal logistic regression, the significant factors were extracted. RESULTS: The Cronbach's reliability coefficient for the DASS-21 scale lies between 0.79 and 0.89 which indicates the high reliability of the DASS-21 scales. According to the findings, roughly 72.7%, 84.1%, and 69% of participants slum dwellers experienced anxiety, depression, and anxiety problems respectively. The result of ordinal logistic regression shows, slum dwellers of female gender (B = 0.669*, 95% CI 0.141, 1.197), married (B = 1.506*, 95% CI 0.119, 2.893), having only one earning member in the family (B = 1.224*, 95% CI 0.526, 1.922), day laborers (B = 2.294*, 95% CI 1.115, 3.473), not being able to educate children due to financial problem (B = 0.558*, 95% CI 0.183, 0.932) were more likely to report high levels of anxiety, depression, and stress. CONCLUSION: The study finds that a significant portion of people who live in slums struggle with mental health issues. It also points to the need for further support, intervention, and study on Khulna's slum inhabitants who are experiencing mental health issues. The authors anticipate that the results will spur policymakers and government representatives to enhance financing for slum dwellers and employ psychological intervention strategies, both of which will aid in achieving the Sustainable Development Goal.

Facebook addiction and its impact on depression: a cross sectional study.

AIM: Facebook has become a part of daily life for its users and therefore become a very significant factor of mental health. As the number of Facebook users increases exponentially, the problems related to immense use have become more evident and more frequent. Therefore, the study aimed to explore the impact of Facebook addiction on depression among its users. METHODS: An online-based questionnaire was used to collect data from 269 Facebook users of Bangladesh using convenient sampling technique. Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (BFAS) and Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) scale was used to assess Facebook addiction and its impact on depression.Ordinal logistic was used to extract the significant variables associated with Facebook addiction and depression. RESULTS: The result categorized the Facebook users into three categories as : normal (17%), problematic user (52%) and addicted (30.5%). Facebook users were suffering from mild (13.4%), minimal (15.6%), moderate (59.5%), and severe (11.5%) level of depression. Both Facebook addiction and depression were moderately correlated (0.701). Ordinal regression showed, gender [Formula: see text] (95% CI) = 0.859 (0.223,1.495)), age (ß (95% CI) = -2.051(-3.789, -0.313)), residential area (ß (95% CI) = -0.858(-1.626, -0.09)), occupation ([Formula: see text]), time length of Facebook use ([Formula: see text]are the significant predictors of Facebook addiction. Wheras, relationship types and occupation are also responsible for depression. CONCLUSION: The study showed large portion of facebook users of Bangladesh are suffering from depression. Authors suggest to arrange mental health campaign to promote bounded and legitimate use of facebook and therefore will accelerate the attaining rate of sustainable development goal related to the Bangladesh's health status.

Online gaming and its effect on academic performance of Bangladeshi university students: A cross-sectional study.

Background and Aims: Due to the availability of more sophisticated cell phones with top-notch gaming functions, the present generation is more active. The available literature indicates that adolescents experience a variety of psychological issues, like low self-control brought on by an addiction to mobile games. Because of this, the aim of this study is to control the prevalence of, and factors that contribute to, online gaming addiction and its effects on academic performance in Bangladeshi university students. Methods: Convenient sampling was adopted to collect primary data from 399 Bangladeshi university students utilizing a prestructured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, the χ 2 test, binary logistic regression, and multinomial logistic regression were also used to accomplish the study's objective. Results: According to this study, 62.7% of students play online games over 30 h every week. The findings also show that male students are more inclined than female students to show signs of addiction. Also, regular online gaming can result in long-term problems, and that factor including age, internet access, educational background, and frequency of play can influence the likelihood of these problems. The findings shows that a lower cumulative grade point average (CGPA), less physical activity, and less study time are associated with playing online games for at least 30 h per week. Moreover, the study found that playing online games, playing for long time, and skipping class can all have an adverse effect on a student's academic performance. Conclusions: The authors recommend that the authorities set up a good entertainment environment and take into account the findings of this article to discourage students from playing online games. Furthermore, encouragement of extracurricular activities such as sports or other pursuits is also essential in assisting Bangladeshi students in overcoming their addiction to mobile games.

Corrigendum to "Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of children in Bangladesh: A cross-sectional study" [Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 117 (2020) 105277].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105277.].

Factors influencing plasma donation behavior of COVID-19 recovered patients in Bangladesh: A pilot study.

Background and Aim: The COVID-19 pandemic has plagued our lives for more than 2 years, and the preference for convalescent plasma (CP) as a life-saving treatment since CP has proven as a potential therapeutic option for acute COVID-19 patients who were suffering from severe disease. It is important to identify which factors are associated with plasma donation. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the associated factors for CP donation to COVID-19 patients. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted online from December 21, 2021 to February 15, 2022 to identify different socio-demographic factors and knowledge related to CP donation. People who recovered from the COVID-19 infections and those who are willing to participate were included in the study. A total of 60 participants were included in the study. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation matrix, and factor analysis. Results: The analysis results confirm that 41.67% (n = 25) of the participants aged 26-30 years; among the recovered patients, only about 23% (n = 14) of the participants donated plasma. Though 97% (n = 58) of the participants agreed to donate plasma when it will be needed, however, when someone asked to donate plasma then 76.67% (n = 46) of the patients declined it. Findings depict that gender had a weak positive relationship with ever decline in plasma donation at 5% level of significance and the age of the participants inversely related to plasma donation. Conclusion: Almost all the recovered participants were willing to donate plasma, however, due to a lack of knowledge and misconception, relatively few people actually did. This study reemphasizes the importance of health education to overcome the misconception about plasma donation, which is crucial for the treatment of COVID-19 infection.

Assessing the mental health condition of home-confined university level students of Bangladesh due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aim: The COVID-19 pandemic drove the Government of Bangladesh to shut down educational institutions, which had an enormous effect on the psychological health of students. This study aimed to assess the mental health status of Bangladeshi university students during the lockdown period. Subject and methods: Through an online-based questionnaire, information was collected from 509 university students of Bangladesh from June 19, 2020, to June 28, 2020, using convenient sampling. K-means clustering was applied to organize students according to their psychological health score, and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was also conducted to determine the association among the student's activities and their mental health during the pandemic. In addition, these associations were examined through chi-square test and ordinal logistic regression. Results: Students were categorized into four categories where 4.32% had mild, 72.7% had moderate, 12.57% had moderately severe, and 10.41% suffered from severe mental health imbalance. The results showed that having family members affected by the coronavirus, facing insecurity, using social media, and smoking habits increased the mental health imbalances of students; in contrast, being worried about studying, future career, spending more time with family members, and participation in household chores reduced the mental health disturbances of students. On the other hand, the results of the ordinal logistic regression indicated that sleeping time and participation in household chores were preventive factors for students. Conclusion: This study reveals that a large proportion of University students of Bangladesh suffered from mental health disturbances during the lockdown period. Implementing mental health plans and providing job security, improved communication approaches toward family members, not flattening illusive news, and preoccupation in household activities may assist to enhance the mental health status of the university students. The authors believe that this study's findings will be helpful to expedite the rate of attaining the sustainable development goal associated with health status in Bangladesh.

Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Among People from the Banking Sector in Bangladesh: a Cross-Sectional Study.

Despite the pandemic, the Government of Bangladesh decided to keep the banks open to a limited extent to keep the country's economy afloat. The aim of this study is to assess the psychological impact of COVID-19 among the bankers who are usually more exposed to random people that put them at great risk to be affected. A total of 248 bankers willingly answered our questionnaire consisting of DASS-21 and relevant questions. Cronbach's reliability coefficient for the DASS-21 scale ranges from 0.84 to 0.90 which advocates that DASS-21 scales are highly reliable measures for this study. Results show that among participants, 11.1% were severe to extremely stressed, 10.6% of bankers were severe to extremely anxious, and 12.1% of them were severe to extremely depressed. The study illustrated, among the Bankers whose colleagues were infected (B=2.251, 95% CI: - 1.473, 3.029), who smoking more (B= 1.505, 95% CI: 0.411, 2.599), who wake up from sleep having a bad dreams (B = 1.018, 95% CI: 0.057, 1.979), their fear of getting infected (B = 1.717, 95% CI: 0.392, 3.04), who use public transportation (B = 1.378, 95% CI: 0.430, 2.236), who misbehave with family members (B = 1.033, 95% CI: 0.071, 1.995) and who beaten children (B = 1.210, 95% CI: 0.141, 2.279) were responsible for higher stress, depression and anxiety scores respectively. Whereas, taking nutritious food (B = -0.229, 95% CI: -0.30, 1.763), doing physical exercises (B = -0.325, 95% CI: -1.158, 0.508) reduced depression, stress and anxiety scores. The authors believed that the result of the study will be beneficial for the government and its policymakers to take psychological intervention strategies and to make certain sufficient corporal settlement of the banking professionals.

Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of children in Bangladesh: A cross-sectional study.

COVID-19 pandemic poses a significant mental health threat among children in Bangladesh. This study aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of children during the lockdown in Bangladesh. An online cross-sectional study was conducted from 25th April to 9th May 2020 among 384 parents having at least one child aged between 5-15 years using non-probability sampling. K-means clustering used to group children according to mental health score and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) performed to identify the relationship among the parental behavior and child mental health, and also these associations were assessed through chi-square test. Children were classified into four groups where 43% of child had subthreshold mental disturbances (mean Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)-10; 2.8), 30.5% had mild (mean MDD-10; 8.9), 19.3% suffered moderately (mean MDD-10; 15.9), and 7.2% of child suffered from severe disturbances (mean MDD-10; 25.2). The higher percentage of mental health disturbances of children with the higher education level of parents, relative infected by COVID-19 (yes), parents still need to go the workplace (yes), and parent's abnormal behavior but lower to their counterparts. This paper demonstrates large proportions of children are suffering from mental health disturbances in Bangladesh during the period of lockdown. Implementation of psychological intervention strategies and improvement in house-hold financial conditions, literacy of parents, taking care of children, and job security may help in improving the psychological/mental status of children and the authors believe that the findings will be beneficial to accelerate the rate of achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) linked to health status in Bangladesh.