Influence of Parental Factors on Tobacco Smoking among Male Adolescents.

In Bangladesh, more than one-fifth (20.5 percent) of the total population, that is 30.68 million is adolescents. Most of the adult smokers initiate smoking in their adolescent period. This study aimed to investigate parental influencing factors for the initiation of tobacco smoking in adolescence period among 15-19 years old college students of Dhaka city, Bangladesh. This was an unmatched case-control study. The information was collected from 91 ever-smokers in the case group and 91 never-smokers in the control group. The respondents were 11th and 12th-grade male college students selected from two colleges of Dhaka city, Bangladesh. The results were analysed using univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis. Parental control variable was categorized by using Likert Scale. Around 68.7 percent (n=57) respondents were 18-19 years old who were ever-smoker and about 44 percent (n=40) ever-smokers initiated smoking at or below the age of 16. Father's smoking status was found significant (p value <0.05) in bivariate analysis. In binary logistic regression, respondents who received intermediate to low control from their father compared to high control (OR 3.35, 95% CI 1.08-10.38, p value 0.035), respondents who received intermediate to low control from their mother compared to high control (OR 3.73, 95% CI 1.07-13.05, p value 0.039), and presence of any smoking member in their family compared to who did not have (OR 6.23, 95% CI 2.57-15.12, p value 0.001) found significantly higher odds of being ever-smoker. Respondents whose mother passed up to 8 hours in a day with them compared to mothers who gave limited time (less than 1 hour) in a day was found significantly lower odds (OR 0.07, 95% CI 0.01-0.65, p value 0.019) which was a protective factor of being ever-smoker. The result of the study concludes that parental influencing factors had a significant role in tobacco smoking of college-going male adolescents. Parent focused tobacco prevention program may be effective to reduce tobacco smoking prevalence. Further interventional studies are required.

A Novel Non-invasive Effective Method for Potential Treatment of Degenerative Disc Disease: A Hypothesis.

The pathophysiology of the intervertebral discs plays a significant role in the people's life quality. There is not adequate research done in the pathogenesis and treatment of intervertebral disc degeneration. Alternately, self-educated physiology offers a novel and noninvasive method to reverse the degenerated discs. In this single case study, report attempts have been made to highlight the effect of the self-educative physiology, on magnetic resonance imaging investigations, of progressive healing, on the degenerated intervertebral discs. Based on this novel method, an effort has been made to review literature on the degeneration of intervertebral discs and available mode of treatments and then to propose a hypothesis for the biochemical mechanisms of healing. The idea is that transforming growth factor-ß1 from seminal plasma secretions may contribute to releasing the osteogenic protein- 1 which induces nucleus pulposus and annulus fibrosus cells in intervertebral discs for repairs. In addition, the patient's medical history is presented with background information.

How Does Family Structure Relate With Children's Language Development? A Cross Sectional Experience from Urban Slums in Dhaka.

Family structure is an important factor for children's overall development. In this cross sectional study, we explored how single parenting relates to child's language development in slums of Dhaka city, Bangladesh from 31st August 2010 to 9th February 2011. Children aged 10 to 24 months (n=133), living with mother only and those living with both parents were included. Children's comprehensive and expressive language development was assessed using the Bengali version of Mac Arthur's Communicative Development Inventory (MCDI). Family care indicators (FCI) were used to assess quality of psychosocial stimulation at home, maternal depression was assessed using Centre for Epidemiological Studies - Depression (CES-D) questionnaire and socioeconomic status (SES) of the family was determined using a previously tested questionnaire. We analyzed the data using multivariate analysis. Maternal depression scores were higher in single mothers compared to those living with their husband and more depressed mothers provided less stimulating environment for the child. Children in the single parent families had lower scores on FCI and their comprehension and expression scores were slightly lower. Multiple regressions analysis showed that children's comprehension {B (95%CI), 0.19 (0.07, 0.32), p=0.003} and expression {0.18 (0.02, 0.35), p=0.032} scores were significantly higher in those living with both parents. Steps to educate parents on the importance of a healthy family life needs to be taken in order to ensure development of children to achieve their full potentials. Further long-term effects of living without father on children's development needs to be explored in Bangladesh.

The prevalence of epilepsy in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan.

Epilepsy is a devastating neurological disorder in which those afflicted can gain benefit from specific treatments based on their genetics and geographic location. Currently the prevalence of epilepsy is estimated at 0.5-3% of the world-wide population, and is increasing in developing countries. In order to make more accurate assessments of the prevalence of epilepsy, we applied the capture-recapture method in a 12-month study of epilepsy in a population from the Sharur district of Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, Azerbaijan with 114,451 people from sixty nine villages and towns. The following methods were applied to determine epilepsy: Door To Door (DTD) survey, Non-Medical Source (NMS), and Medical Source. Using these three techniques, 1,032 patients with epilepsy (9.02/1000) were included in our study. The DTD survey determined 627 patients with epilepsy (5.48/1000) and 247 (2.16/1000) from the NMS methods versus 158 (1.38/1000) from the Medical Source (MS) methods. Applying the capture-recapture method, NMS, and DTD methods, the number of epilepsy cases increased to 1,330 (11.62/1000) [95% CI: 10.21-13.03]. The combinations of these methods show that 887 people (7.75/1000) have a diagnosis of epilepsy. Multiple epidemiological tasks used in our study can be used to estimate clinical signs and/or markers in future applications for the determination and development of treatment strategies for this devastating disease in the third world countries such as the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan.