The prevalence of general obesity, abdominal obesity, and hypertension and its related risk factors among young adult students in Bangladesh.

Hypertension is a major cause of cardiovascular disease and related mortality worldwide. The presence of general and abdominal obesity in hypertensive individuals increases the risk of cardiovascular mortality. However, evidence on the burden of obesity and hypertension and associated factors are lacking or limited among young adult students in Bangladesh. This study measured the prevalence and factors associated with general and abdominal obesity and hypertension among university students in Bangladesh. In this study, a total of 1011 students (647 males and 364 females) were enrolled on nine public universities in eight divisional regions of Bangladesh. Data were collected on socio-demographic, anthropometric, and lifestyle in a questionnaire form. Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the association of general obesity, abdominal obesity and hypertension with different factors. The prevalence of general obesity, abdominal obesity and hypertension was 8.3%, 20.7%, and 10.2%, respectively. The females had a higher prevalence of general obesity (8.8%) and abdominal obesity (26.3%) compared to the males (8.0% and 17.7%, respectively). However, a higher prevalence of hypertension was observed in males (12.2%) than in the female (6.1%) patients. In regression analysis, age showed a significant association with general obesity, whereas, age and female sex were significantly associated with abdominal obesity. The analysis also identified the male sex and high BMI as the increased risk factors for hypertension. Our study suggests a comprehensive screening program and campaigns to increase awareness about obesity and hypertension and its risk factors among young adults in Bangladesh.

Environmental sustainability assessment due to stone quarrying and crushing activities in Jaflong, Sylhet.

Quarrying and crushing activities constitute a major threat to the environment and occupational health of the workers in Jaflong, Sylhet. This study aims to determine the environmental sustainability of stone quarrying and crushing activities considering four dominant environmental components, viz. physicochemical parameters of water, PM2.5 and PM10, sound, and land use land cover (LULC). Water quality was measured in a seasonal variation, and air and sound data were collected in an 8-h period of every weekday of 2 months while LULC data were also collected from 1999 to 2019 with 5 years of interval. Water quality index (WQI) and cluster analysis were applied to classify the pollution sources while inverse distance weighting (IDW) and weighted overlay were used to show the vulnerable zone. All the parameters were considered with the established limit of WHO. WQI detects that the sampling stations located near the quarrying site were responsible for the deterioration of the water quality. Cluster analysis identified that the S8 and S10 sites were heavily susceptible to air and sound pollution. IDW and WO ranked the south-western lower stream and tribal village located at the north-western side as moderately to highly polluted. Correlation analysis illustrated that the values of air and sound parameters were concentrated above the permissible limit. Besides, LULC change revealed the significant lowering trend of vegetation and water bodies whereas it shows the upward trend of barren land and settlement. Finally, the extensive quarrying and crushing activities without any safety measure lead to breaking the environmental sustainability as well as workers and nearby dwellers were exposed to several respiratory diseases.