Marriage and marriage dissolution in a rural area of Bangladesh

The aim of this thesis is to study the age and sex patterns and differentials of marriage formation and marriage dissolution in rural Bangladesh, using a unique set of marital status registration data from the Demographic Surveillance System (DSS) of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) for the years 1975-1979. This study is the first of its kind in Bangladesh to use marital status registration data. In rural Bangladesh marriage is universal and early, especially for females. It appears from this study that female age at first marriage has been increasing somewhat during the past 5 years but for males age at marriage remains almost constant. A pronounced seasonality of marriages prevails in the rural areas of Bangladesh. As in other societies, education has a substantial effect on age at marriage of both males and females. Groom's occupation has only a slight effect on age at marriage. Divorce in rural Bangladesh is frequentand largely occurs early in marriage. Age difference between groom and bride at marriage has a strong impact on the incidence of widowhood. It also has a marked effect on divorce. Education, husband's occupation and religion have a differential influence on the stability of marriage and on remarriage after divorce or widowhood

Stillbirth in rural Bangladesh: arsenic exposure and other etiological factors: a report from Gonoshasthaya Kendra

OBJECTIVE: To use data collected by Gonoshasthaya Kendra, a large nongovernmental organization providing health care to some 600 villages, to describe the epidemiological pattern of stillbirth and any additional contribution made by arsenic contamination of hand-pump wells in Bangladesh. METHODS: Completed pregnancies and outcomes (n = 30 984) for two calendar years, together with existing data on 26 socioeconomic and health factors were selected for study. The health care in these villages was administered from 16 geographical centres; information on the average arsenic concentration in each centre was obtained from the National Hydrochemical Survey. After univariate analysis, a multivariate, multilevel, logistic model for stillbirth was developed. The additional effect of arsenic was calculated having adjusted for all potential confounders thus identified. FINDINGS: The overall stillbirth rate was 3.4% (1056/30 984) and increased with estimated arsenic concentration (2.96% at 50 µg/l). Having adjusted for 17 socioeconomic and health factors, the odds ratios estimated for arsenic (with < 10 µg/l as reference) remained raised: 1.23 (95% confidence interval, CI: 0.87–1.74) at 10 µg/l to < 50 µg/l and 1.80 (95% CI: 1.14–2.86) at 50 µg/l or greater. CONCLUSION: A increased risk of stillbirth is associated with arsenic contamination. This risk, substantial enough to be detected by an ecological approach and not readily attributable to unmeasured confounding, is essentially preventable and all efforts must be made to protect women at high risk

Measles case fatality among the under-fives: A multivariate analysis of risk factors in a rural area of Bangladesh

This study investigated the relationship of measles case fatality among the under-fives with age, case type, complications, sex, mother's education, and household economic condition in a rural area of Bangladesh. A total of 3465 measles cases were detected during 1980 and 61 of them died of measles associated complications within 45 days of rash onset. Case type, sex, mother's education and household economic condition were found to have statistically significant impact on case fatality. Risk of death among the secondary cases was 1.87 times higher than in the primary cases, girls had 2.73 times higher risk of death than boys. Children of mothers without any formal schooling and those from the poorest households experienced 1.83 and 2.18 times higher risk of death than their counterparts whose mothers had at least one year of schooling and from economically better off households respectively.measles case fatality risk factors mother's education Bangladesh

C-type lectins in immunity and homeostasis

The authors thank the Wellcome Trust, the UK Medical Research Council (MRC), the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology at the University of Aberdeen and Arthritis Research UK for financial support. The authors apologize to colleagues whose many valuable contributions could not be cited owing to space constraints.Peer reviewedPostprintPostprintPostprintPostprin