Association of overweight and obesity with hypertension, diabetes and comorbidity among adults in Bangladesh: evidence from nationwide Demographic and Health Survey 2017-2018 data.

OBJECTIVES: The study aimed to determine the association of overweight and obesity with hypertension, diabetes and comorbidity among the adults of Bangladesh. STUDY DESIGN: This study used cross-sectional data from the nationally representative Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2017-2018. The main outcome variables were hypertension, diabetes and comorbidity. Comorbidity was defined as the coexistence of hypertension and diabetes. Overweight and obesity, as measured by body mass index, were the main explanatory variables. The strength of the association was determined using the adjusted multiple logistic regression models. SETTING: Rural and urban areas in Bangladesh. PARTICIPANTS: The study included a total of 11 881 adults (5241 men and 6640 women) aged 18 years or older. RESULTS: The prevalence of hypertension, diabetes and comorbidity among the sample population were 28.5%, 9.9% and 4.5%, respectively. Among the respondents, 20.1% were overweight and 4.1% were obese. The risk of hypertension was 2.47 times more likely in the overweight group (adjusted OR (AOR) 2.47; 95% CI 2.22 to 2.75) and 2.65 times more likely in the obese group (AOR 2.65; 95% CI 2.16 to 3.26) compared with the normal or underweight group. Adults who were overweight and obese had 59% (AOR 1.59; 95% CI 1.37 to 1.84) and 88% (AOR 1.88; 95% CI 1.46 to 2.42) higher odds of having diabetes, respectively, than normal or underweight adults. Moreover, the risk of comorbidity was 2.21 times higher in overweight adults (AOR 2.21; 95% CI 1.81 to 2.71) and 2.86 times higher in obese adults (AOR 2.86; 95% CI 2.09 to 3.91) compared with normal or underweight adults. CONCLUSIONS: Using large-scale nationally representative data, we found that overweight and obesity were significantly associated with hypertension, diabetes and comorbidity. So, nationally representative data can be used for programme planning to prevent and treat these chronic conditions.

Creative social media use for Covid-19 prevention in Bangladesh: a structural equation modeling approach.

In recent years, information dissemination has been quicker than earlier years with the sky-high development of diverse social media platforms, e.g., Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, YouTube and so on, which are more used in creative production. This advancement of social media disclosures has numerous merits and demerits to prevent and control contagious diseases like the Covid-19 pandemic. In this respect, this research scrutinizes the role of creative social media use in preventing the Covid-19 outbreak in Bangladesh utilizing the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach. To this end, this study uses an online survey from June to October 2020 engaging 265 (N = 265) Bangladeshi people as respondents at different ages. The study results establish that creative social media use helps enhance the knowledge of Covid-19 precautions online, and this pertinent knowledge contributes to preventing Covid-19 outbreak in Bangladesh. It implies that creative social media use has a significant indirect effect on Covid-19 prevention, whereas knowledge of Covid-19 precautions online mediates this relationship between creative social media use and Covid-19 prevention. The results also discover that the educational level of the people has a significant direct and positive impact on Covid-19 prevention. Therefore, the study suggests more creative use of social media in preventing the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic in Bangladesh.