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BACKGROUND: Female undergraduate students may undergo many health implications due to the transition from secondary to undergraduate level. AIM: The study was aimed to assess molar ratios of phytate to minerals (calcium, zinc, and iron) in the diets, and to measure the iron status of resident female students at Dhaka University. METHODS: In total, 180 female students between 18-26 years of age from 3 dormitories of Dhaka University were selected for the study. Dietary intake information was collected over three consecutive days. Multiple-Pass 24-hour recall. Blood hemoglobin and serum ferritin levels were analyzed for sub-sample (20 participants from each dormitory). RESULTS: The mean dietary intake of phytate, calcium, zinc, and iron were estimated at 347.11, 181.04, 6.59, and 7.14 mg/day, and hemoglobin and serum ferritin at 11.34 g/dl, and 18.48 ng/ml, respectively. The respective molar ratios of phytate: calcium, phytate: zinc, phytate: iron and phytate × calcium: zinc were 0.13, 5.27, 4.20, and 21.26 in the diet of the respondents. The prevalence of anemia, iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia among the respondents was found to be 51.7%, 48.4%, and 28.3%, respectively. Linear regression analysis showed that only zinc intake had positive association with hemoglobin, while iron and zinc intake had a significant positive, and phytate:iron molar ratio had a significant negative association with serum ferritin concentration (p < 0.05). After adjusting all significant determinants of serum ferritin, no predictors have found significant. CONCLUSIONS: Larger and more specific research is needed to clearly understand the mechanism behind anemia and iron deficiency among female residential students.
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Hierro , Ácido Fítico , Bangladesh/epidemiología , Dieta , Femenino , Humanos , Minerales , EstudiantesRESUMEN
Heavy metal contamination of fish is a serious public health concern worldwide, including in Bangladesh. In this study, six commonly consumed fish species namely Hilsha (Tenualosa ilisha), Kachki (Corica soborna), Punti (Puntitus ticto), Taki (Channa punctatus), Meni (Nandus nandus), and Tengra (Mystus tengara) were analyzed for arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), and nickel (Ni), by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The fish samples were collected from wholesale markets in Dhaka city, the main business hub of Bangladesh where the fishes converged from countrywide and are redistributed to the whole city. The metal concentration varied among the studied fish species. Hilsha, the national fish of Bangladesh, contained the highest As among the other fishes of this study, whereas Zn, Cd, Cu, Mn, and Ni were the highest in Kachki, and Pb and Cr were the highest in Tengra. The probable source of metal accumulation in the fish species may be the river or marine water that can be contaminated by industrial waste, pesticide, and/or fertilizer use in agriculture and/or commercial fish feeds. All analyzed fish species showed serious heavy metal pollution, having high average pollution load index (APLI) values (> 1). The estimated daily intake (EDI) values for the metals were lower than the maximum tolerable daily intake (MTDI). The hazard index (HI) for all the fish species was above 1 for adults, showing non-carcinogenic health risks. The target carcinogenic risk (TCR) values were below the acceptable limit (10-4) for most of the metals, indicating safe for consumption with respect to the risk of cancer.
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The study aimed to assess the level of potentially toxic elements (As, Cd, Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr, Mn, and Ni) and associated health implications through commonly consumed rice cultivars of Bangladesh available in Capital city, Dhaka. The range of As, Cd, Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr, Mn, and Ni in rice grains were 0.04-0.35, 0.01-0.15, 0.01-1.18, 10.74-34.35, 1.98-13.42, 0.18-1.43, 2.51-22.08, and 0.21-5.96 mg/kg fresh weight (FW), respectively. The principal component analysis (PCA) identified substantial anthropogenic activities to be responsible for these elements in rice grains. The estimated daily intake (EDI) of the elements was below the maximum tolerable daily intake (MTDI) level. The hazard index (HI) was above the threshold level, stating non-carcinogenic health hazards from consuming these rice cultivars. The mean target cancer risk (TCR) of As and Pb exceeded the USEPA acceptable level (10-6), revealing carcinogenic health risks from the rice grains.
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Oryza , Bangladesh/epidemiología , Oryza/química , Humanos , Contaminación de Alimentos/análisis , Carcinógenos/análisis , Carcinógenos/toxicidad , Metales Pesados/análisis , Metales Pesados/toxicidad , Análisis de Componente PrincipalRESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate adolescents' attitudes towards soft drinks and identify the underlying factors that are associated with their consumption of such drinks. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 213 adolescents aged between 10 and 19years living in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A structured questionnaire was used to assess their socio-demographic and soft drinks consumption-related characteristics, and their attitudes towards soft drinks. Structural equation modelling was employed to identify the potential factors associated with soft drink consumption among adolescents. RESULTS: More than 80% of the adolescents consumed soft drinks at least once a week. Overall, adolescents had a positive attitude toward soft drinks. Results revealed that adolescent's attitudes, gender, accessibility of soft drinks at school/college, distance from home to shop, outside food intake habit and parents' soft drinks consumption were the factors associated with their consumption of soft drinks. CONCLUSION: High proportion of adolescents consumed soft drinks. Thus, a community and individual level nutrition education programme with targeted behaviour change might be helpful to reduce the consumption of sweetened beverages among adolescents.
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Actitud , Bebidas Gaseosas , Adolescente , Humanos , Niño , Adulto Joven , Adulto , Estudios Transversales , Bangladesh , Conducta AlimentariaRESUMEN
COVID-19 has imposed many challenges and barriers on traditional healthcare systems due to the high risk of being infected by the coronavirus. Modern electronic devices like smartphones with information technology can play an essential role in handling the current pandemic by contributing to different telemedical services. This study has focused on determining the presence of this virus by employing smartphone technology, as it is available to a large number of people. A publicly available COVID-19 dataset consisting of 33 features has been utilized to develop the aimed model, which can be collected from an in-house facility. The chosen dataset has 2.82% positive and 97.18% negative samples, demonstrating a high imbalance of class populations. The Adaptive Synthetic (ADASYN) has been applied to overcome the class imbalance problem with imbalanced data. Ten optimal features are chosen from the given 33 features, employing two different feature selection algorithms, such as K Best and recursive feature elimination methods. Mainly, three classification schemes, Random Forest (RF), eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGB), and Support Vector Machine (SVM), have been applied for the ablation studies, where the accuracy from the XGB, RF, and SVM classifiers achieved 97.91%, 97.81%, and 73.37%, respectively. As the XGB algorithm confers the best results, it has been implemented in designing the Android operating system base and web applications. By analyzing 10 users' questionnaires, the developed expert system can predict the presence of COVID-19 in the human body of the primary suspect. The preprocessed data and codes are available on the GitHub repository.
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Background: Mothers' knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward exclusive breastfeeding are crucial to both child and mother's health and wellbeing. Hence, This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices of exclusive breastfeeding among lactating mothers as well as the predictors of their exclusive breastfeeding practice. Methodology: This cross-sectional study included 397 mothers having infants aged 0-6 months who sought care at Noakhali Sadar Upazila, Noakhali, Bangladesh. A field-tested and validated Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) questionnaire was utilized to collect information from participants. Results: Of those evaluated; 29.0% of mothers could not define exclusive breastfeeding accurately, 11.3% and 59.3% did not know the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding for babies and mothers, respectively. More than half (51.4%) of the mothers reported feeling good about exclusive breastfeeding for six months, did not find difficulties to breastfeed exclusively for six months (39.5%) and on-demand (58.2%). The mothers had an overall favorable attitude towards exclusive breastfeeding; however, 38.3% of mothers did not exclusively breastfeed their children. Literate mothers tended to exclusively breastfeed more (AOR: 3.06, 95% CI: 1.01-9.32; P = 0.049) than illiterate mothers. Mothers having one baby were more likely to breastfeed exclusively (AOR: 3.07, 95% CI: 1.21-7.78; P = 0.018) than mothers having more than one baby. Moreover, mothers with higher knowledge and favorable attitude had more than two times (AOR: 2.58, 95% CI: 1.315.07; P = 0.006) and forty-three times (AOR: 43.18, 95% CI: 21.513-86.66; P < 0.001) the higher tendency of exclusive breastfeeding compared to others. Conclusion: Despite having satisfactory knowledge and attitude, the practice of exclusive breastfeeding among mothers was poor. We recommend that interventions must be focused more on ensuring exclusive breastfeeding practice among mothers in addition to improving their knowledge and attitudes.
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Objetivo: Evaluar las actitudes de los adolescentes hacia los refrescos e identificar los factores subyacentes asociados al consumo de dichas bebidas. Método: Estudio transversal realizado entre 213 adolescentes de edades comprendidas entre 10 y 19años, residentes en Dhaka, Bangladesh. Se utilizó un cuestionario estructurado para evaluar las características sociodemográficas y las relacionadas con el consumo de refrescos, así como sus actitudes hacia los mismos. Se utilizó una modelización de ecuación estructural para identificar los factores potenciales asociados al consumo de refrescos entre los adolescentes. Resultados: Más del 80% de los adolescentes consumía refrescos al menos una vez por semana. En general, los adolescentes tuvieron una actitud positiva hacia los refrescos. Los resultados revelaron que las actitudes de los adolescentes, el sexo, la accesibilidad a los refrescos en la escuela/instituto, la distancia del domicilio a la tienda, el hábito de ingerir alimentos en el exterior y el consumo de refrescos por parte de los padres eran factores asociados al consumo de refrescos por parte de este colectivo. Conclusión: Una elevada proporción de adolescentes consumía refrescos. Por tanto, un programa educativo sobre nutrición a nivel comunitario e individual podría ayudar a reducir el consumo de bebidas azucaradas entre los adolescentes.(AU)
Objective: To evaluate adolescents attitudes towards soft drinks and identify the underlying factors that are associated with their consumption of such drinks. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 213 adolescents aged between 10 and 19years living in Dhaka, Bangladesh. A structured questionnaire was used to assess their socio-demographic and soft drinks consumption-related characteristics, and their attitudes towards soft drinks. Structural equation modelling was employed to identify the potential factors associated with soft drink consumption among adolescents. Results: More than 80% of the adolescents consumed soft drinks at least once a week. Overall, adolescents had a positive attitude toward soft drinks. Results revealed that adolescent's attitudes, gender, accessibility of soft drinks at school/college, distance from home to shop, outside food intake habit and parents soft drinks consumption were the factors associated with their consumption of soft drinks. Conclusion: High proportion of adolescents consumed soft drinks. Thus, a community and individual level nutrition education programme with targeted behaviour change might be helpful to reduce the consumption of sweetened beverages among adolescents.(AU)