Assessing individuals' knowledge and preventive behaviors towards the Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (COVID-19) is essential for the related public health surveillance strategies. Although some of the ...studies were conducted in Bangladesh, none of these studies considered the geographical distribution of knowledge and preventive behaviors towards COVID-19. Therefore, the present nationwide cross-sectional study with 10,067 samples for the first-time aims to assess the knowledge gap by presenting the geographical distribution of the COVID-19 knowledge and preventive behaviors across all administrative districts of Bangladesh. The measures included socio-demographics and questions about knowledge and preventive behaviors related to COVID-19. One-way ANOVA, independent t-test, and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data. In addition, GIS-based mapping identified district-wise distribution of the outcomes. Results indicated that the overall mean score of knowledge related to COVID-19 was 14.363 ± 3.073, whereas 16.95 ± 2.89 was for preventive behaviors. Participants' being male, being divorced or widowed, consuming alcohol, smoking cigarettes, living in villages, and having no formal education reported lower performing preventive COVID-19 behaviors. Those participants with higher knowledge scores reported higher preventive COVID-19 behaviors (β = 0.053, p<0.001). However, the model predicted only 13.2% of the variation in preventive COVID-19 behaviors while the overall model being significant. The findings suggest that the Bangladeshi government should initiate appropriate far-reaching program of health education focusing on knowledge and preventive behaviors towards COVID-19 at a community level. After all, the strategies to combat COVID-19 will require individuals' involvement to control and prevent the disease outbreak, for which education is essential.
The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has become a global burden disrupting peoples' quality of life. Students being an important cohort of a country, their mental health during this pandemic has been ...recognized as a concerning issue. Therefore, the prevalence and associated risk factors of Bangladeshi students' mental health sufferings (ie, depression, anxiety, and stress) are systematically reviewed herein for the first time.
Adhering to the PRISMA guideline, a systematic search was performed from 1 to 5 April, 2021 in several databases including PubMed; and finally, a total of 7 articles were included to this review.
The prevalence rates of mild to severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress ranged from 46.92% to 82.4%, 26.6% to 96.82%, and 28.5% to 70.1%, respectively. The risk factors concerning mental health problems included the factors related to (i) socio-demographic (younger age, gender, lower educational grade, urban residence, family size, currently living with family/parents, and having children in the family), (ii) behavior and health (smoking status, lack of physical exercise, more internet browsing time, and dissatisfaction with sleep), (iii) COVID-19 pandemic- (COVID-19 related symptoms, COVID-19 related perceptions, and fear of COVID-19 infection), (iv) miscellaneous (losing part-time teaching job, lack of study concentration, agitation, fear of getting assaulted or humiliated on the way to the hospital or home, financial problems, academic dissatisfaction, inadequate food supply, higher exposure to COVID-19 social and mass media, engaging with more recreational activities, and performing more household chores).
The overall assumption of mental disorders' prevalence rates can be regarded as problematic to this cohort. Thus, the authorities should consider setting up possible strategies to diminish the pandemic effect on students' mental health.
Treating quarks within neutron stars Han, Sophia; Mamun, M. A. A.; Lalit, S. ...
Physical review. D,
11/2019, Letnik:
100, Številka:
10
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Neutron star interiors provide the opportunity to probe properties of cold dense matter in the QCD phase diagram. Utilizing models of dense matter in accord with nuclear systematics at nuclear ...densities, we investigate the compatibility of deconfined quark cores with current observational constraints on the maximum mass and tidal deformability of neutron stars. We explore various methods of implementing the hadron-to-quark phase transition, specifically, first-order transitions with sharp (Maxwell construction) and soft (Gibbs construction) interfaces, and smooth crossover transitions. We find that within the models we apply, hadronic matter has to be stiff for a first-order phase transition and soft for a crossover transition. In both scenarios and for the equations of state we employed, quarks appear at the center of premerger neutron stars in the mass range ≈1.0–1.6 M⊙, with a squared speed of sound cQM2≳0.4 characteristic of strong repulsive interactions required to support the recently discovered neutron star masses ≥2 M⊙. We also identify equations of state and phase transition scenarios that are consistent with the bounds placed on tidal deformations of neutron stars in the recent binary merger event GW170817. We emphasize that distinguishing hybrid stars with quark cores from normal hadronic stars is very difficult from the knowledge of masses and radii alone, unless drastic sharp transitions induce distinctive disconnected hybrid branches in the mass-radius relation.
Background:
Students are one of the most vulnerable groups to suicide. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, a Bangladeshi study was conducted assessing their suicide patterns regarding gender-based ...associations. But how has the pandemic changed the Bangladeshi students’ suicide patterns is not studied yet, which is investigated herein. Besides, for the first time, this study provides GIS-based distribution of suicide cases across the country’s administrative district.
Methods:
As Bangladesh has no suicide surveillance system, this study utilized media reporting suicide cases following the prior studies. A total of 127 students’ suicide cases from March 2020 to March 2021 were finally analyzed after eliminating the duplicate ones, and data were synthesized following the prior studies. Arc-GIS was also used to distribute the suicide cases across the administrative district.
Results:
Results revealed that female (72.4%; n = 92/127) was more prone to die by suicide than males. About 42.5% of the cases were aged between 14 and 18 years (mean age 16.44 ± 3.512 years). The most common method of suicide was hanging (79.5%; n = 101), whereas relationship complexities (15.7%), being emotional (12.6%), not getting the desired one (11%), conflict with a family member (9.4%), academic failure (9.4%), mental health problem (8.7%), sexual complexities (6.3%), scolded or forbidden by parents (3.9%) were the prominent suicide causalities. In respect to gender and suicide patterns, only the suicide stressor was significantly distributed, whereas the method of suicide was significantly associated with GIS-based distribution. However, a higher number of suicide cases was documented in the capital (i.e. Dhaka) and the northern region than in its surrounding districts.
Conclusions:
The findings reported herein are assumed to be helpful to identify the gender-based suicide patterns and suicide-prone regions in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic to initiate suicide prevention programs of the risky students.
The COVID-19 pandemic is undoubtedly a major threat to the world. The preventive strategies designed to minimize the virus transmission by remaining at home, being isolated, and keeping social ...distance, which would substantially reform people's lifestyle, physical activity, eating habits, etc. Consequently, those measures might create a disturbance in weight management and overweight. Therefore, how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the physical activities of individuals and its impacts on the Body Mass Index (BMI) is explored herein.
An online-based cross-sectional study collected data from 338 Bangladeshi adults in November 2020. The questionnaire included socio-demographics, health-related variables, physical activity-related variables, and diet measurement. Inferential statistics (i.e., chi-square test, McNemar test) were used to measure the associations between BMI and studied variables with a consideration of two scenarios ('before' and 'during' the pandemic inception), where p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results showed that the prevalence of overweight was 30.5% 'before' the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased to 34.9% 'during' the pandemic; that means 4.4% of the participants significantly gained weight after the pandemic inception. There was no significant role of socio-demographic (e.g., gender, age, current residence, occupation) or physical activity-related factors (e.g., unavailability of outdoor space, not performing regular physical exercise, exercising with a partner) in changing the BMI status after the pandemic inception. However, following a proper diet plan during the COVID-19 pandemic was observed to decrease BMI status significantly.
The present study suggests that a minor portion of the participants reported increasing their overweight status after the pandemic inception, whereas having a proper diet plan during the pandemic can significantly decrease BMI status. Therefore, the importance of the appropriate diet plan should be considered while implementing any policies.
Electromyography (EMG) signals are becoming increasingly important in many applications, including clinical/biomedical, prosthesis or rehabilitation devices, human machine interactions, and more. ...However, noisy EMG signals are the major hurdles to be overcome in order to achieve improved performance in the above applications. Detection, processing and classification analysis in electromyography (EMG) is very desirable because it allows a more standardized and precise evaluation of the neurophysiological, rehabitational and assistive technological findings. This paper reviews two prominent areas; first: the pre-processing method for eliminating possible artifacts via appropriate preparation at the time of recording EMG signals, and second: a brief explanation of the different methods for processing and classifying EMG signals. This study then compares the numerous methods of analyzing EMG signals, in terms of their performance. The crux of this paper is to review the most recent developments and research studies related to the issues mentioned above.
•Bangladesh has almost no country-representative researches addressing COVID-19 related mental health problems•5.0% suicidal ideation and 33.3% depression was reported from this nationwide study•The ...risk factors for both depression and suicidal ideation included - younger age, female, smoker, comorbidities and insomnia•Other COVID-19 related risk factors were its’ poor knowledge and greater fear, and not engaging in its preventive behaviors•GIS mapping presented district-wise distributions of depression and suicidal ideation.
As with other countries worldwide, lockdown measures during the COVID-19 outbreak in Bangladesh were sudden and unexpected, and have the capacity to elicit serious psychological consequences. The present study examined the psychological consequences of COVID-19 in Bangladesh during the lockdown period.
A nationwide online cross-sectional survey study recruited 10,067 individuals covering all 64 districts in Bangladesh via social media (April 1-10, 2020). The survey comprised questions concerning socio-demographics, knowledge of COVID-19, behavior towards COVID-19, fear of COVID-19, insomnia, depression, and suicidal ideation. Logistic regression and structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses were performed to identify the risk factors depression and suicidal ideation. Geographical information system (GIS)-based spatial analysis was used to identify district-wise susceptibility to depression and suicidal ideation.
The prevalence rate of depression and suicidal ideation related to COVID-19 was 33% and 5%%. Common risk factors for suicidal ideation and depression included being young, being female, being a cigarette smoker, having comorbid diseases, having high scores on the Fear COVID-19 Scale, and having insomnia symptoms. GIS-based maps detected high depression and suicidal ideation in the capital of Bangladesh and the districts near the capital as well as coastal areas where COVID-19 prevalence was high, as compared with districts with no reported cases.
Self-reported scales and cross-sectional design of the study.
COVID-19 is associated with major psychological impact across Bangladesh, underlining the need of strategically located psychological support measures and improved access to mental health services, especially among women and younger people.
Suicide is considered as one of the major public health concerns, which can be prevented with cost-effective and timely intervention. In Bangladesh, very few studies assessed the suicidal behavior of ...rural community people. Thus, this Bangladesh Community Mental Health Study (BD ComMen Study) attempted to understand the current situation of suicidality in Bangladeshi rural community people considering three-time frames: lifetime, past year, and past month.
A cross-sectional study was conducted in a rural community in Bangladesh between May 17 and 31, 2022, using a cluster sampling technique. Information on socio-demographics, COVID-19-related factors, depression, anxiety, insomnia, and suicidal behaviors was collected. The Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test and logistic regression were used to analyze the data.
During their lifetime, 33.1% of the rural community people had suicidal thoughts, whereas 5.5% made a plan for suicide and 1.8% attempted suicide. The prevalence of past-year suicidal ideation was 3.9%, whereas 1.4% had a suicide plan. In addition, 0.6% had past-month suicidal thoughts, although none of them had planned or attempted suicide. The factors associated with suicidal behaviors included males, lower age, lower educational grade, low-earning jobs, living in a government-provided house, family history of mental health and suicide, and suffering from anxiety and insomnia.
Suicidal behaviors among the rural community people are of great concern as most of the rural people in Bangladesh do not have enough mental health literacy for treatment-seeking due to a high level of mental health-related stigma. Thus, this study would likely help to initiate further studies and stimulate suicide prevention programs, because most suicide can be prevented.
A previous study identified students taking Bangladeshi university entrance tests as a vulnerable group at a higher risk of suicidal behaviours before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the impact of ...the pandemic on the magnitude of these behaviours among this population remains unexplored.
This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of suicidal ideation and associated factors among Bangladeshi university entrance test takers following the pandemic. In addition, an approach based on Geographic Information System (GIS) data was used to visualise the distribution of suicidal ideation across the country.
A cross-sectional approach was used to collect data among participants taking the entrance test at Jahangirnagar University in September 2022. Using SPSS, data were analysed with chi-squared tests and binary regression, and ArcGIS was used to map the results across the nation.
The study revealed a prevalence of 14.4% for past-year suicidal ideation, with 7.4% and 7.2% reporting suicide plans and attempts, respectively. Notably, repeat test-takers exhibited a higher prevalence of suicidal behaviours. Significant risk factors for suicidal ideation included urban residence, smoking, drug use, COVID-19 infection and deaths among close relations, depression, anxiety and burnout. The GIS-based distribution indicated significant variation in the prevalence of suicidal ideation across different districts, with higher rates observed in economically and infrastructurally deprived areas.
Urgent measures are needed to address the high prevalence of suicidal behaviours among students taking university entrance tests students in Bangladesh, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Enhanced mental health support, targeted prevention efforts and improved resources in economically disadvantaged regions are crucial to safeguard the well-being of these students.
Problematic smartphone use (PSU) has been increasing hastily in recent decades, and it has become inseparable during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among the students who are at risk of ...problematic smartphone use. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the prevalence and associated factors of PSU during the COVID-19 pandemic among the Bangladeshi students.
A total of 601 Bangladeshi students were recruited through an online-based cross-sectional survey that was conducted between October 7 and November 2, 2020. The survey collected information related to socio-demographics, behavioral health, internet use behaviors, depression, anxiety, and PSU. Independent samples
-test and one-way ANOVA were performed to present the relationship between the studied variables and PSU. Multiple linear regression analysis was also used for investigating the explanatory power of the predictive models for PSU.
Surprisingly, about 86.9% of the students scored to be problematic smartphone users (≥21 out of a total 36 based on the Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale). In addition, medical students, engaging in a relationship, performing less physical activity, longer duration of internet use, some sorts of internet use purpose (eg, messaging, watching videos, using social media), depression, and anxiety were significantly associated with higher scores of PSU. After adjusting all the studied variables, the final model explained a 31.3% variance predicting PSU.
The present study is one of the first approaches to assess the prevalence of PSU among the Bangladeshi students during the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas the addiction level was superfluous (and this may be due to more online engagement related to the pandemic). Thus, the study recommended strategies or policies related to the students' risk-reducing and healthy use of smartphones.
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