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Highlights Geriatric health is often overlooked in developing countries like Bangladesh. Mental health is the lowest priority domain of geriatric health. The majority of the Bangladeshi elderly population suffers from depression symptoms. Depression is strongly associated with geriatric malnutrition. Depression can seriously deteriorate the quality of life for older adults.

Background: Iodine deficiency disorder is one of the major hidden hunger for poverty-stricken coastal rural areas of Bangladesh. Despite various programs, including universal salt iodization, IDD is significantly persistent due to poverty, inadequate knowledge, poor attitude, and practice of iodized salt consumption. The present study aimed to determine iodine concentration in salt at the household level as well as the magnitude of knowledge, attitude, and practice related to iodized salt utilization and iodine deficiency disorders (IDDs). Material and method: A population-based cross-sectional study was carried out using multistage sampling among 400 households in four coastal districts in Bangladesh. A standard pretested questionnaire was used to determine the knowledge, attitude, and practice towards iodized salt consumption. The iodine level was measured using the gold standard iodometric titration technique in the collected salt samples from the selected households. Result: The study results revealed that almost half of the participants had good knowledge regarding a balanced diet, whereas the positive attitude and practice of balanced diet consumption was relatively low (only 16.2% and 11.3%, respectively). The respondents' education profile and age were strongly correlated with knowledge and attitude; however, the practice was not significantly correlated with age and education. The concentration of iodine in salt at household levels was strongly associated with the practice of using iodized salt. Use of adequate iodized salt was 2.838 times (OR: 2.838, 95% CI: 1.7-4.735) and 3.884 times (OR: 3.884, 95%CI: 2.029-7.433) more likely to have a positive attitude and good practice towards iodized salt and IDDs respectively. Conclusion: Proper knowledge about iodized salt and IDDs should be introduced to all public education premises levels. Interventions and programs can be formulated to enhance knowledge, attitude, and practice at the household level so that the consumption of adequate iodized salt can be ensured to reduce iodine deficiency problems.

Introduction Obesity and higher BMI is one of the leading comorbidities to increase the risk of COVID-19 severity. This paper presents a systematic review and meta-analysis estimating the effects of overweight and obesity on COVID-19 disease severity. Method ology: Two electronic databases (Medline and Cochrane library) and one grey literature database (Grey Literature Report) were searched. The risks of bias of the selected studies were assessed by using the Navigation Guide method for human data. Both random and fixed effect meta-analyses were determined using Review Manager (RevMan) software version 5.4. Results After initial screening, 12 studies were fulfilled the eligibility criteria, comprising a total of 405359 patients, and included in the systematic review. The pooled risk of COVID-19 severity was 1.31 times higher based on both fixed and random effect model among those overweight patients, I 2 0% and 2.09 and 2.41 times higher based on fixed and random effect respectively among obese patients, I 2 42% compared to healthy individuals. Conclusion Overweight and obesity are found to be risk factors for disease severity of COVID-19 patients. However, further assessment of metabolic parameters is required to estimate the risk factors of COVID-19 patients and understanding the mechanism between COVID-19 and body mass index.

ObjectivesAdolescence, a crucial period for growth velocity including sexual maturation, is an important period of life and young adolescent girls need to have proper knowledge, positive attitudes and practice of balanced diet to achieve optimum growth and development. Considering its importance this study attempts to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of balanced diets among adolescent schoolgirls in Noakhali district, Bangladesh.MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in three secondary schools in Noakhali district, Bangladesh. A multistage sampling techniques was used to select schools and study participants. A total of 485 adolescent school girls participated and a pre-designed, validated and structured questionnaire was used for data collection. In addition to descriptive statistics, chi-square test and logistic regression were employed for analysis.ResultsThe results from the study revealed that more than half of the students did not have good knowledge about a balanced diet, 42.8% had a positive attitude, whereas the practice of consuming a balanced diet was rather low (only 4.5%). Students studying in government schools had better knowledge and attitudes than non-government school students. Moreover, 41.1% of students were underweight; more than 60% of respondent’s mothers did not have an education higher than secondary school and were mostly unemployed housewives. Parent’s education, mother’s occupation, and types of school have a strong association with KAP; however, father’s education and occupation showed an association of varying degrees. Being knowledgeable was related to positive attitudes, and students with good knowledge had (OR: 1.828; 95% CI: 1.270–2.631) more likely to have positive attitudes towards a balanced diet.ConclusionsThus, proper knowledge about a balanced diet should be introduced with basic nutritional knowledge to all levels of public education. Interventions and programs can be designed to improve knowledge, attitude, and more specifically the practice at the household level so that adolescent girls can have a proper diet during their sexual maturation phase.