Background: Undernutrition is one of the major responsible factors of morbidity and mortality among preschool children in the most developing countries. Weight for age Z-score (WAZ), height for age Z-score (HAZ) and weigh for height Z-score (WHZ) are widely used for indicating nutritional status of children. Therefore, the study was conducted to interpret the nutritional status based on head circumference for age z score (HCAZ), WAZ, HAZ and WHZ among children aged from 36 to 71 months in Rajshahi City area, Bangladesh. Methods: This cross-sectional study included one thousand and thirty five preschool children. Of them, 538 were boys and 497 were girls. Data were collected during the period of March 2017 to March 2018, using multistage random sampling method. Head circumference (HC) was measured (cm) and HC-for-age Z-score (HCAZ) was calculated according to World Health Organization recommendations. Z-score values of HC <-2 standard deviation below from the reference population were considered as undernourished. Z score -3 <HC< -2 standard deviation were taken as moderately undernourished whereas, ‘≤−3’ standard deviation were considered as severely undernourished, respectively. Results: Among boys the mean age and HC were 53.58 ± 10.68 and 48.62 ± 1.87 whereas, among girls the mean age and HC were 51.35 ± 11.17 and 48.00 ± 1.84 respectively. According to HC, the rate of moderate and severe malnourished children among boys were 33.3 % and 6.3% and among girls 30% and 13.5% respectively. The prevalence of malnutrition was higher according to HC for age in comparison to other parameters. The study revealed that 33.3% and 12.4% stunted, 41.3% and 12.7% underweight and 41.9% and 9.5% wasted children were moderately malnourished and severely malnourished according to HC respectively. The relationship between these three indicators and HC for age were statistically significant. Conclusion: As head circumference (HC) is a reliable physical index of both past nutritional situation and brain development and important indicator for measuring nutritional status, routine measurement and intervention for assessing and removing undernutrition is to be recommended. Bangladesh Med Res Counc Bull 2018; 44: 152-159

Girls face discrimination from the moment of her birth. Different underlying factors are responsible for this disparity. Though in recent decades, there is a significant advance in gender disparity, it is still prevalent in different aspect of life throughout the world. Yet a wide level of disparity still exists, whether implicit or explicit, in nutrition and child cares both in the rural and urban areas. Thus, the aim of the study was to determine the gender disparity in nutritional status among under five children in Rajshahi City, Bangladesh. A community based multi-stage cross-sectional study were accomplished for collecting anthropometric and household socio-demographic data of under-five (36≤ age ≤59) children to assess gender disparity on nutritional status in Rajshahi City, Bangladesh. It was performed during the period March 2017 to September 2017. Simple random sampling was used to select children from households by applying multistage sampling technique. Data were analyzed using WHO anthro 2005 software (WHO, Geneva, Switzerland) and Statistical Package for Social Sciences IBM (SPSS) version 22.0. A value of p<0.05 was regarded as statistically significant in the analysis. Under five 371 girls with mean age 47.26 ± 8.33 months and 366 boys with mean age 48.28 ± 7.75 months were participated in this study. No failure in composite anthropometry/normal healthy boys and girls were found 46% and 36% respectively. The prevalence of moderate underweight, stunting and wasting among girls were 23.5%, 27.5% and 14.6% respectively, whereas, among boys 22.7%, 25.4% and 9.8% respectively. Deficiency of energy intake, insufficiency of macro and micro nutrients increase the chance of suffering protein-energy malnutrition, nutritional disorders among girls, compared to boys. Aggregating social development and intervention program of Government may help to reduce gender disparity and improve the nutritional status of overall all children. J. bio-sci. 27: 1-10, 2019

In the developing countries, stunting has been the most tenacious public health problem and is the major cause of child mortality and global disease burden, where 80% of this burden is found in developing countries and would result in 22% loss of adult income. The aim of this study was to investigate prevalence and determinant factors associated with stunting among pre-school children in Rajshahi City, Bangladesh. A multi-stage cross sectional study was performed during the period March 2017 to September 2017. One thousand and nine (1009) pre-school children (36≤ Age ≤71 months) were considered as our study population. Data were collected by using a pretested and semi-structured questionnaire, which consisted of socio-economic characteristics, dietary and feeding pattern related information. Stunting of a child was determined using the WHO Multicenter Growth Reference Standard. Chi-square test and multiple logistic regressions were carried out to identify determinants of stunting. The odds ratio (OR) with a 95% confidence interval was calculated to assess the strength of the association, and p-value of <0.05 were considered as statistically significant. Boys (52%) with mean age 53.56 ± 10.405 months and girls (48%) with mean age 51.67 ± 10.934 months were participated. The prevalence of stunting among the preschool children in Rajshahi City was 39.7% (5.4% severe, 24.9% moderate and 9.4% mild stunted). The odds of being stunted were illiterate mother, lower food purchasing capabilities, poor dietary diversity score (95% CI: 1.640-3.052; p<0.001), experiencing pre-lacteal (95% CI: 1.616-2.789; p <0.001), prevalence of disease frequency (95% CI: 1.62-3.56; p<0.01), poor socio-economic class (95% CI: 2.83- 9.51; p<0.01). J. bio-sci. 26: 31-40, 2018

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Mustard oil is popular edible oil in Bangladesh. It contains about more than fifty percent erucic acid which is toxic to human beings. This study evaluated the determination of biochemical properties (acid value, iodine value, saponification value and unsaponifiable matter %) of mustard oil, virgin coconut and sesame oil and toxicity determination of these oils through blood indices targeting of these oil by mixing with normal diet as a dietary supplementation. This study found acid value of mustard, sesame and virgin coconut oil was 0.92, 0.312, 0.52 respectively. Iodine value of mustard, sesame and virgin coconut oil were 110.2, 105.2, and 11 respectively. Saponification value of wild mustard, sesame and virgin coconut oil was 171.1, 187.2 and 240   respectively and unsaponifiable matter % of mustard, sesame and virgin coconut oil was 1.19, 0.31 and 0.92 respectively. Also in vivo experiment  we divided wistar male rats were 4 groups such as normal diet 12 g/day/rat, mustard oil (MO) 0.6 g/day/rat, virgin coconut oil (VCO) 0.6g/day/rat and sesame oil (SO) 0.6 g/day/rat. In this study the vegetable oil causes the effect on average body weight gain, Food Efficiency Ratio (FER), and lipid profiles  [Total cholesterol (Tch), HDL- Cholesterol  LDL - Cholesterol, Triglyceride (TG)] and serum  enzymes [SGOT (AST), SGPT (ALT)] of different groups of rat also been estimated. The study found that mustard oil significantly (p<0.05) increase lipid profile and enzymes SGOT, SGPT level in blood serum which is an indication of heart and liver disorder. The study found that coconut and sesame oil consumption in rat significantly (p<0.05) decrease of these parameters.