Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and associated factors in Bangladeshi adolescents during COVID-19.

Background and Aims: The COVID-19 pandemic and its accompanying countermeasures significantly disrupt the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of adolescents. We aimed to estimate the status and associated factors related to HRQoL of adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic from the community population of Bangladesh. Methods: This cross-sectional study followed two-stage sampling. From eight administrative divisions of Bangladesh, 2030 adolescents were enrolled. The KIDSCREEN-10 index was used to measure the HRQoL of adolescents. In addition to this, adolescents' data on sociodemographics, mental well-being, parenting style, insomnia, food insecurity, depression, anxiety and stress, resilient coping, screen-based activity, and anthropometry were taken for finding out the factors associated with HRQoL of adolescents. The hierarchical multilinear regression was performed to assess the association. Results: More than 47% of adolescents were found to have moderate and high HRQoL, while 4.7% of adolescents experienced low HRQoL during data collection. Higher age (B: -0.671), having more siblings (B: -0.316), food insecurity (B: ‒2.010), depression (B: ‒0.321), anxiety (B: ‒0.362), and stress (B: ‒0.150) were found to have significantly negative associations with adolescents' HRQoL during the COVID-19 pandemic. Whereas, positive parenting (B: 0.409), inconsistent parenting discipline (B: 0.266), good mental health (B: 5.662), resilient coping (B: 0.306) were found to have significant positive relationships. Conclusions: The findings from this study indicate that over 52% of the adolescents reported a moderate and lower level of HRQoL. In light of these results, it may be beneficial to prioritize interventions targeting psychological factors such as depression, anxiety, and stress.

Compliance of healthcare workers with the infection prevention and control guidance in tertiary care hospitals: quantitative findings from an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study in Bangladesh.

OBJECTIVES: To assess healthcare workers' (HCWs) compliance with the infection prevention and control (IPC) practices and identify the factors influencing this compliance using the Health Belief Model as the theoretical framework. DESIGN: Quantitative data from an explanatory sequential mixed-methods study were employed in this research. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTINGS: From 17 May to 30 August 2020, 604 physicians and nurses working at six randomly selected tertiary care facilities in Dhaka City in Bangladesh took part in this study. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Compliance with the WHO's guidance on IPC measures, as well as the associated factors, was the primary outcome. RESULTS: A mean compliance score of 0.49 (±0.25) was observed on a 0-1 scale. HCWs were most compliant with the medical mask wearing guidelines (81%) and were least compliant with the high-touch surface decontamination regulations (23%). Compliance with the IPC guidance was significantly associated with increasing age, female sex, working as a nurse, having non-communicable diseases and history of exposure to patients with COVID-19. Perceived benefits (B=0.039, 95% CI 0.001 to 0.076), self-efficacy (B=0.101, 95% CI 0.060 to 0.142) and cues to action (B=0.045, 95% CI 0.002 to 0.088) were positively associated with compliance. Compliance with IPC guidance was 0.061 times greater among participants who reported low perceived barriers compared with those with high perceived barriers. CONCLUSION: Overall, compliance with IPC guidance among HCWs was unsatisfactory. As self-efficacy exerted the greatest contribution to compliance, it should be emphasised in any endeavour to improve HCWs' IPC adherence. Such interventions should also focus on perceived barriers, including unreliability of the information sources, unsafe working places and unavailability of protective equipment and cues to action, including trust in the administration and availability of adequate IPC guidance.

Prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) among rural population: A national survey in Bangladesh.

Background: In Bangladesh, there is a scarcity of nationally representative data on the burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: To estimate the COPD prevalence in rural settings, this cross-sectional, population-based study was conducted in all eight administrative divisions of Bangladesh, and involved adults aged 40 years and above. By using multi-stage random sampling, 2,458 individuals were enrolled. The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guidelines were used to diagnose COPD based on post-bronchodilator lung function, while additional participant data was gathered through computer-assisted personal interviews. Results: A 2% COPD prevalence (95% CI: 1.45, 2.55) was found in the study sample with a statistically significant difference between males (2.7%; 95% CI: 1.8, 3.6) and females (1.2%; 95% CI: 0.59, 1.81). Increasing age significantly inflated the odds of having COPD irrespective of sex (OR: 1.03; 95% CI: 1.00, 1.05; P value < 0.05). Furthermore, prevalence of COPD was higher among manual workers, cigarette smokers, and those that used the indoor kitchen and did not have a primary education. Sex-based analysis showed that smokeless tobacco consumption was significantly associated with COPD occurrence among males (OR: 2.14; 95% CI: 1.05, 4.37; P value < 0.05), but not females. Further, using an indoor kitchen increased the odds of developing COPD by 400% among female participants (OR: 4.39; 95% CI: 1.37, 14.10; P value < 0.05). Conclusion: This study provides a comprehensive sex-based estimation of COPD prevalence among rural population and imparts significant contribution to the growing database on COPD prevalence in Bangladesh.

Duration and Risk Factors of Post-COVID Symptoms Following Recovery Among the Medical Doctors in Bangladesh.

A large number of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) recovered patients are suffering from related symptoms. We conducted telephone interviews with 186 COVID-19 recovered medical doctors to determine the post-COVID symptoms, duration, and associated risk factors. About 70% of participants had at least one acute post-COVID symptom, including fatigue (43.0%), sleep disturbance (13.4%), lack of concentration (11.8%), breathing difficulty (10.2%), headache (6.5%), and muscle pain (6.5%). However, about 24% of participants reported having long post-COVID symptoms. Logistic regression analysis showed that female sex (odds ratio {OR}, 2.79; 95% CI, 1.28-6.06; p-value: 0.010) and comorbid conditions (OR, 2.28; 95% CI, 1.08-4.79; p: value, 0.030) are risk factors for the long post-COVID symptoms.

A rapid and cost-effective multiplex ARMS-PCR method for the simultaneous genotyping of the circulating SARS-CoV-2 phylogenetic clades.

Tracing the globally circulating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) phylogenetic clades by high-throughput sequencing is costly, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. We here propose a rapid, simple, and cost-effective amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS)-based multiplex reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to identify six distinct phylogenetic clades: S, L, V, G, GH, and GR. Our multiplex PCR is designed in a mutually exclusive way to identify V-S and G-GH-GR clade variants separately. The pentaplex assay included all five variants and the quadruplex comprised of the triplex variants alongside either V or S clade mutations that created two separate subsets. The procedure was optimized with 0.2-0.6 µM primer concentration, 56-60°C annealing temperature, and 3-5 ng/µl complementary DNA to validate on 24 COVID-19-positive samples. Targeted Sanger sequencing further confirmed the presence of the clade-featured mutations with another set of primers. This multiplex ARMS-PCR assay is a fast, low-cost alternative and convenient to discriminate the circulating phylogenetic clades of SARS-CoV-2.