Prevalence and determinants of hypertension among older adults : a comparative analysis of the 6th and 8th national health surveys of Bangladesh

Background: Hypertension is a major public health concern in low-and middle-income countries. A nationwide Health, Population, and Nutrition Sector Development Program in Bangladesh has been shown to be effective in resource-poor settings. This article aims to investigate whether the prevalence and determinants of adult hypertension changed from 2011 to 2018. Methods: The determinants of adult hypertension were assessed in 2011 and 2018 data of Bangladesh Demographic and Health surveys. These two surveys included both men and women over the age of 34 years and measured their blood pressure, weight, height, and other covariates. For both surveys, we estimated the age-standard prevalence of hypertension and relative, attributable and mediated risk of determinants of hypertension using hierarchical mixed-effects sequential Poisson regression models. Results: The prevalence of adult hypertension increased by 10.9% from 29.5% in 2011 to 40.4% in 2018. The nationwide awareness program on the Health, Population and Nutrition Sector changed the risks associated with hypertension determinants over the years. During 2011, Socio-economic status (SES) was a major distal determinant of adult hypertension, explaining 21% of population-attributable risk (ART). However, other factors accounted for 90% of risk, mainly by excessive body weight (51%) and awareness of hypertension (39%). In contrast, SES only explained 16% of ART risk, with 97% of the risk mediated by excessive body weight (55%) and awareness of hypertension (41%). Conclusion: The study results highlight that hypertension among older adult was significantly increased over the six-year period. Specially, the socio-economic status, awareness of hypertension and excessive body weight were the significant determinants. Being awareness of hypertension and excessive body weight changed the causal pathways of socio-economic status. The results also highlight the value of studying the effect of non-communicable disease awareness programs to enhance our comprehension of factors influencing health

Evaluation of Fast-food and Prepared Food Contamination with Health Pests

Background: Biologic and pathogenic contamination of food is the most important cause of illness and death in developing countries. Providing food security during the food preparation for restaurants and self-services is very important. The aim of this study was to determine level of prepared food contamination with egg, larvae and adult insects, or other health pests. Methods: In a period of 3 years, samples of food (26) suspected to be contaminated with biological agents related to various restaurants and universities� self-services and were investigated. Organs or larval stages of insects were isolated and were later cleaned using water. The samples were identified using a stereo microscope. The results were compared using images and tables. Results: Contaminated food and fast food including kabab koobideh and celery stew respectively accounted for highest (19) and lowest (1 case) contamination rate in the present study. The contamination rate of the other studied foods was as follow: Rice and raw milk each respectively 15.5, Kale pache and soup each 11.5, Ghorme sabzi, khorest-e-gheyme and hamburger each with 7.7. Conclusion: Supply of primary healthy food sources and securing food safety during preparation as well as complete and accurate maintenance of food up to the consumption phase are among the most important measures to be considered to prevent food contamination with insect larvae. Copyright (c) 2018 Journal of Communicable Disease

The Prevalence of Cognitive Impairment Among Adults With Incident Heart Failure: The “Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke” (REGARDS) Study

Background Cognitive impairment (CI) is estimated to be present in 25%–80% of heart failure (HF) patients, but its prevalence at diagnosis is unclear. To improve our understanding of cognition in HF, we determined the prevalence of CI among adults with incident HF in the REGARDS study. Methods and Results REGARDS is a longitudinal cohort study of adults ≥45 years of age recruited in the years 2003–2007. Incident HF was expert adjudicated. Cognitive function was assessed with the Six-Item Screener. The prevalence of CI among those with incident HF was compared with the prevalence of CI among an age-, sex-, and race-matched cohort without HF. The 436 participants with incident HF had a mean age of 70.3 years (SD 8.9), 47% were female, and 39% were black. Old age, black race, female sex, less education, and anticoagulation use were associated with CI. The prevalence of CI among participants with incident HF (14.9% [95% CI 11.7%–18.6%]) was similar to the non-HF matched cohort (13.4% [11.6%–15.4%]; P < .43). Conclusions A total of 14.9% of the adults with incident HF had CI, suggesting that the majority of cognitive decline occurs after HF diagnosis. Increased awareness of CI among newly diagnosed patients and ways to mitigate it in the context of HF management are warranted

Big DNA Datasets Analysis under Push down Automata

Consensus is a significant part that supports the identification of unknown information about animals, plants and insects around the globe. It represents a small part of Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) known as the DNA segment that carries all the information for investigation and verification. However, excessive datasets are the major challenges to mine the accurate meaning of the experiments. The datasets are increasing exponentially in ever seconds. In the present article, a memory saving consensus finding approach is organized. The principal component analysis (PCA) and independent component (ICA) are used to pre-process the training datasets. A comparison is carried out between these approaches with the Apriori algorithm. Furthermore, the push down automat (PDA) is applied for superior memory utilization. It iteratively frees the memory for storing targeted consensus by removing all the datasets that are not matched with the consensus. Afterward, the Apriori algorithm selects the desired consensus from limited values that are stored by the PDA. Finally, the Gauss-Seidel method is used to verify the consensus mathematically

Synthesis, docking and evaluation of novel fused pyrimidine compounds as possible lead compounds with antibacterial and antitumor activities

Reaction of a series of hydrazonoyl chlorides with substituted aminopyrimidines afforded good selectivity in most cases leading either to formation of new imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidine derivatives, or regioisomeric hydrazonamide adducts. The compounds were evaluated for antibacterial and anticancer activities. Screening against 'E. Coli', 'P. aeruginosa', 'S. aureus', 'S. epidermidis', 'B. subtilis' and 'K. rhizophila' did identify several different compound types with MIC of 0.1-0.4 mg/mL. Anticancer evaluation against a HeLa cell line identified one imidazo[1,2-a]pyrimidine lead. An 'in silico' target fishing analysis suggest three possible high value protein targets, Tankyrase-2 (Tank-2), Cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK2) and Epidermal growth factor tyrosine kinase receptor (EGFR), with modelling fit against co-crystallized known ligands. This provides a new structural family lead for further investigation of molecular targets and potential SAR activity development

Why small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements should be integrated into comprehensive strategies to prevent child undernutrition in nutritionally vulnerable populations : response to Gupta et al.’s commentary

We write in response to the commentary by Gupta et al. (2023) on small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS) for infants and young children 6 to 24 months of age, which was prompted by the recent brief guidance note from UNICEF (2023) explaining when, why and how SQ-LNS are being prioritized as part of their package of preventive actions to combat early childhood malnutrition. The UNICEF document was disseminated shortly after publication of a correspondence in Nature Food (Aguayo et al. 2023), authored by nutrition leaders from several organizations, that summarized the evidence on the benefits of SQ-LNS and called for this intervention to be scaled up and integrated into programs for populations in which child undernutrition is prevalent and dietary quality is very poor. We agree with Gupta et al. that child malnutrition is the result of many factors and there is no single “quick fix” or “magic bullet”. In fact, the above-cited documents state clearly and frequently that provision of SQ-LNS is not a stand-alone intervention and must be integrated into comprehensive strategies to improve infant and young child feeding (IYCF), including the promotion of dietary diversity, as well as other actions needed to prevent malnutrition. SQ-LNS are intended for vulnerable populations who lack access to an affordable, nutritionally adequate complementary feeding diet and have high rates of stunting, wasting and mortality. In such populations, we agree with Gupta et al. that IYCF messages alone are not enough. This is precisely why SQ-LNS were originally developed

Environmental control methods against wild and domestic species of Muridae family: A review

Rat and mice are the major pests which cause a large number of common diseases between humans and animals. Several methods have been used to combat these pests. A new environmental control method of rat is presented for urban, rural and natural areas in Iran. The results showed that keeping the rat away and improving residential areas are two of the most effective and less costly methods to prevent the rat. Removing water and food supplies in all cases reduces the population and damage caused by rat. © 2018, Malhotra Publishing House