Estimating own-price and cross-price elasticity of cigarette consumption by price tiers in Bangladesh.

OBJECTIVES: The overall price elasticity of cigarette consumption in Bangladesh has been studied extensively. The estimates of price elasticity by price tiers are not available in the existing literature. METHODS: Using cohort data of nearly 6000 individuals from the International Tobacco Control Bangladesh survey, this study estimated the own-price and cross-price elasticity and income elasticity of cigarette demand by price tiers in Bangladesh. The elasticity was estimated in three stages of consumer decisions: whether to smoke, which brand to smoke and finally, how many cigarettes to smoke per day. The decision to smoke cigarettes and the choice of cigarette brands were modelled using instrumental variable probability regression. The cigarette consumption per day was modelled using seemingly unrelated regression. RESULTS: The price elasticity of cigarette smoking prevalence with respect to the price of low-price cigarettes is -0.0487. The total elasticity for low-price cigarette consumption with respect to its own price is -0.1678. The own-price elasticity of smoking intensity of high-priced brands is -0.2512. The cross-price elasticity of low-price cigarette consumption with respect to high-price brand prices is 0.2643. The income elasticity of smoking prevalence overall is 0.0564. The income elasticity of daily consumption of low-price cigarettes is -0.1934 and for high-price cigarettes, it is 1.4044. The total income elasticity is 1.4608 for high-price cigarettes. CONCLUSION: A cigarette tax policy that raises the prices of both low-price and high-price brands-but increases prices in the low-price tier at a faster rate than in the high-price tier and increases prices of all brands at a pace faster than income growth-can effectively reduce cigarette consumption in Bangladesh. JEL CODES: H29, L66, I18.

Socio-economic inequalities in overweight and obesity among women of reproductive age in Bangladesh: a decomposition approach.

BACKGROUND: Overweight and obesity of women is a growing concern all over the world. However, an understanding on the socio-economic inequalities in overweight and obesity of women received little attention, especially in the context of Bangladesh. Therefore, the objective of this study was to measure the inequality in overweight and obesity among women of reproductive age in Bangladesh as well as to explore the effect of various socio-economic factors on this inequality. METHODS: This study used data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2014 which is a nationally representative data. The concentration index of overweight and obesity was applied to measure the extent of socio-economic inequality. Finally, the concertation index was decomposed in order to understand the contribution of different socio-economic variables in inequality in overweight and obesity of women. RESULTS: This study included a total of 16,624 women of reproductive age. The study found that the prevalence of overweight was about 29% and the rate of obesity was approximately 11%. The value of concentration index for overweight and obesity was 0.37 (p < 0.001). This study also observed that about 52% inequality was explained by household's wealth status followed by watching television (25%), husband/partner's educational status (around 7%), women's educational status (about 5%), place of residence (approximately 4%). CONCLUSIONS: This study found notable level of overweight and obesity among the women of Bangladesh. Various socio-economic factors like wealth status, education levels of women and partners, urban settings, women watching television predominantly contributed to the inequality in overweight and obesity among women of reproductive age. Therefore, the study suggests adopting necessary interventions targeting the women of higher socio-economic status to reduce the risk of life-threatening problems caused by overweight and obesity.

Predictors of Self-Reported Health Status of Ready-made Garment Workers in Bangladesh in Post Global Economic Recession Period.

Introduction There has been disagreement within academia in Bangladesh on whether the global economic recession of 2008-2009 came out as a bane or a boon to their economy and for their people, particularly workers in the ready-made garments (RMG) sector; therefore, we sought to conduct a study among currently employed and recently unemployed RMG workers to examine the influence of recession on their self-reported health status. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted among 200 workers across 20 factories and 108 recently unemployed workers from different locations of Dhaka. Workers were selected based on a systematic sampling method from 20 randomly selected factories. Unemployed respondents were selected via snowball sampling. A questionnaire was prepared to cover different socio-demographic variables, which were then explored against an outcome variable of how the respondents rate their current health status (2009) compared with their past health status during the economic recession period (2008). A simple logistic regression was conducted for each of the independent variables with the outcome variable. Finally, all independent variables were loaded against the outcome variable, and multiple logistic regression was run. Results The only statistically significant predictor of self-reported health status was age, which indicated a 4% decrease (p = 0.05; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.9203417 to 1.000015) in improved or better health with each year increase in age, holding other variables constant. Respondent health status was unchanged or even improved after the period of recession. The employed group had 1542.061 Taka (approximately $20) more average monthly family income than the unemployed group (two-sample t-test p-value 0.007), their health status was not affected (odds ratio (OR) 0.998; p-value 0.907). Conclusion The absence of an association between self-reported health status and economic recession is not uncommon, and explanations have been proposed for this phenomenon.

Individual-, Household-, and Community-Level Determinants of Childhood Undernutrition in Bangladesh.

INTRODUCTION: Childhood undernutrition is a crucial public health problem globally. The objective of this study is to measure the prevalence of childhood undernutrition and assess the distinct role of various factors on childhood undernutrition in Bangladesh. METHODS: This study utilized the latest cross-sectional data from Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2014. A total of 7256 data on children younger than 5 years old were analyzed. The undernutrition status of children was assessed by stunting (height-for-age), wasting (weight-for-height), and underweight (weight-for-age), while bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify various individual-, household-, and community-level factors of childhood undernutrition. RESULTS: The prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight were 36.5%, 14.6%, and 32.5%, respectively. Along with various individual- and household-level factors (eg, age, recent diarrheal disease, fever, number of under-5 children in the household, mother's education and nutritional status, and wealth status), community index, particularly regional and geographic variation of community, had significant role for childhood undernutrition in Bangladesh. CONCLUSION: Childhood undernutrition is an overwhelming public health issue in Bangladesh. In order to improve the nutritional status of under-5 children, interventions should take into account the various predictors discussed in this study. Indeed, a joint effort by the government, nongovernmental organizations, and the community is necessary to improve the childhood nutritional status in Bangladesh.