Socioeconomic and Demographic Predictors of Women\u27s First Birth at an Early Age: Evidence from Bangladesh’s Demographic and Health Survey, 2004-2014

Women\u27s health is highly influenced by early childbearing in 95% of developing countries such as Bangladesh. Women who have their first child at an early age receive fewer years of schooling, which also influences their employment life. Women\u27s early age at first birth creates health complications, increases both maternal and child mortality, and prolongs the reproductive duration as well as a country\u27s fertility rate. This is a major social and public health problem around the world. This study aims to investigate the existing situation in Bangladesh and to identify the triggering influencing factors of age at first birth. A cross-sectional study design was implemented in this study, where we used the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey data from 2004, 2007, 2011, and 2014. Firstly, to identify different factors associated with first birth at an early age, the bi-variate analysis method was carried out. Then a logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the simultaneous effect of socioeconomic and demographic factors. Findings of the study reveal that respondent education level, partner\u27s education level, religion, reading newspaper, and type of place of residence had significant contributions for early age at first birth among the female in Bangladesh. Based on the findings, there seems a decreasing trend of having early childbearing in Bangladeshi women over the years, but still, no optimal fertility rate has been achieved. For complex socio-cultural settings in Bangladesh, it is difficult to reduce the fertility rate. Hence, to reduce the prevalence of the age at early childbearing in Bangladesh, the Government and non-government organizations should take proper initiatives considering our study findings

Socioeconomic Determinants of Diarrhea among Under-Five Children in Bangladesh: Do Education and Wealth Matter?

Background: The purpose of this study is to assess the current status of diarrhea among the under-five children in Bangla­desh by exploring the risk factors which are associated with this disease.Subjects and Method: In this study, a nationally representative cross-sectional data had been used and the sample of women having under five children was selected by using a two stage stratified sampling method. A total of 7410 under five children were included. The depen­dent variable of this study was the status of diarrhea disease in the two weeks preceding the survey. The independent variable was edu­cation-wealth composi­tion along with some other important variables such as age of child­ren, delive­ry by caesarean section, migration status, mother’s age at birth, type of residence, source of toilet facility, sources of drinking water. The bivariate analysis was chi-square. The multi­va­riate analysis was a multiple logistic regre­ssion.Results: According to this research study, education and wealth didn’t show any impact individually in the logistic regression model but when we excluded education and wealth from the model and create it is composition, it worked as a significant influential factor of diarrhea disease in Bangladesh. Women who were literate and their wealth status was not rich (OR= 0.64; 95% CI= 0.43 to 0.96; p= 0.030), women who were literate and rich (OR= 0.55; 95% CI= 0.35 to 0.88; p = 0.012) had significant association with childhood diarrhea. In addition to that only children age between 6-23 months (OR= 3.49; 95% CI= 2.23 to 5.48; p<0.001) and 24-35 months (OR= 1.75; 95% CI= 1.08 to 2.85; p= 0.023) worked out as a significant predictor of childhood diarrhea.Conclusion: This study was expected to help to build up a proper understanding about the socio-economic factors in order to reduce the childhood diarrhea in Bang­la­desh.Keywords: under-five children, child­hood diarrhea, education-wealth compo­si­tion, socioeconomicCorrespondence: Sharlene Alauddin. Statistics Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna-9208, Bang­la­desh. Email: [email protected] of Maternal and Child Health (2021), 06(04): 444-454https://doi.org/10.26911/thejmch.2021.06.04.0

Smoke-free status of homes and workplaces among Indian people: Evidence from Global Adult Tobacco SurveyData-2016/2017

Aims This study aimed to determine the impact of correlates on tobacco control/smoke-free status of homes and workplace among Indian people. To assess the magnitude of the problem, the relationship between smoke-free status and secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure was also explored. Methods Data was extracted from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey Data (GATS)-2017. It was a household survey that included people aged 15 years or older and covered all 30 states and 2 Union Territories (UTs) of India. A logistic regression model was used to determine the correlates of smoke-free status of homes and workplaces. Additionally, the Pearson correlation was used to explore the relationship between smoke-free status and the proportion of participants exposed to SHS both at homes and in the workplaces. Results The overall prevalence of smoke-free status in the home and workplace was 62.8% and 51.7%, respectively. Results of multivariate analysis (Logistic regression) illustrated that indicators like tobacco smoking status, place of residence, region, education, occupation, wealth quintile, and knowledge status about children’s illness were significantly associated with the respondent’s intention to live in a completely smoke-free environment both at home and in the workplace in India. This study revealed that SHS exposure was significantly negatively associated with a smoke-free status. Conclusion This study will help the policymakers to promote efficient policies for improving smoke-free status and to ensure a better environment both at home and in the workplace in India