Abstract:Cigarette smoking is an intractable public health problem that poses threat to the health of the entire population. Smoking is considered as the single largest risk factor for a variety of malignancies, including lung cancer. The prevalence of smoking is gradually increasing among the students in Bangladesh. Considering this view, this cross sectional study was conducted in a selected higher secondary college of Moulvibazar district under Sylhet division. The objectives of the study were to determine the proportion of current smokers and its determinants among the college students. A total of 719 students were interviewed using self administered questionnaire. The mean age (SD) of the students was 17.1(SD 1.5) years ranging from 15 to 22 years. Majority of the respondents were male (57.4%) and 42.6% were female with male-female ratio of 1.3:1. Out of 719 students, 22% were current smokers and the rest 78% were non smokers. Half of the students reportedly mentioned that they started smoking due to peer pressure followed by curiosity (34%), to avoid anxiety and tension (28%), feeling of maturity (14%, symbol of manliness (9%) etc. The most frequent form of smoking was cigarette(56%) followed by Bidi (37%), Hukkah (6%) and 2% hand made cigarette. The mean age of starting smoking was 13(SD 2.9) years ranging from 9 to 20 years. More than one third (35%) of the student's father were smokers, whereas 11.5% of their brothers were smokers. Logistic analysis revealed that only age, sex and educational attainment appeared to be important predictors of smoking (p<0.001). This indicates that the smoking was 4.26 times high among male students than their female counterparts. It was 2

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The current descriptive type of cross sectional study was conducted during 16th May to 31st May 2018 to assess awareness regarding personal hygiene and sanitation practices in Dhamrai, Dhaka with a sample size of 120 using interviewer administered semi-structured questionnaire employing convenience sampling technique. More than one third (35.9%) of the respondents were in age group 25-35 years and about 65% were female, 32.5% were housewives and 35.8% were found illiterate. source of drinking water was from71.67% tube well and 78.3% used sanitary latrine. More than half of the respondents (61.67%) were taking daily bath with soap and water, 61.66% cut their nails at leisure time and 51.67% wash hair with shampoo and water; while 59.67% washed their hands before meal and 76.67% after defecation with soap and water. It is revealed that 43.3% were aware about the transmission of diarrheoa through dirty nail and 73.3% were aware not to defecate on barefoot. Health education and comprehensive knowledge of proper personal hygiene and sanitation is essential in daily life and should be used to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

A descriptive type of cross sectional study was conducted at Badda, Dhaka to assess the level of knowledge on climate change of the people with a purposive sample size of 226. Nearly half of the respondents heard about the global warming but 43.24% didn't. A major portion of the respondents (62.39%) agreed to include the Climate Change in school curriculum. 39.38% respondents strongly agreed that the world climate is changing but it was due to human behavior which was strongly agreed by 16.81%. 17.26% strongly believed that developed countries are the main contributors. 15.49% of the respondents strongly agreed that developed countries should provide compensation to the affected developing countries. Neither agreed nor disagreed that the Climate Change had impact on economy was 38.06% but 40.27% respondents strongly agreed that Climate has impact on human health. 36.73% respondents strongly agreed that Climate Change has impact on food production and 34.07% strongly agreed that it has impact on soil condition and fertility. 49.56% respondents strongly agreed for the need to take measure to reduce or prevent Climatic Change and 43.23% strongly agreed on awareness creation to cope with Climate Change. TV/RADIO was the most important source of information about global warming (82.75%). The association between educational level and knowledge on Climate Change was found to be significant. As the climate change has already put a devastating impact on survival on millions, effective action plan to be undertaken to control the impact on environment and create awareness about the adverse effects of it on the globe. Anwer Khan Modern Medical College Journal Vol. 4, No. 2: July 2013, Pages 5-9 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/akmmcj.v4i2.16916

To assess the compliance of hand decontamination practices among the health care workers of Combined Military Hospital BNS Patenga and CMH Tangail. Study was descriptive type of cross sectional study and conducted from November 2016 to September 2017 at BNS Patengaand November 2017 to September 2018 at CMH Savar with a sample size of 384 using a semi structured pretested questionnaire; method of data collection was face to face interview and FGD. In this study ratio of male: female was 1:3.2. More than one third (39.6%) of the respondents were upto SSC followed by Diploma / Graduate (25.5%). Among the respondents 67.7% were married with a ratio of married: unmarried was 1:2.07; 93,2% were muslim and rest were Hindu. Mean age were 32.40 years ± 7.366 SD, mean length of service was 11.51 years ± 7.155 SD. There was significant association between sex of the respondents and compliance of hand decontamination (p<,05), designation and compliance of handwashing (p<,05), education and hand decontamination (p<,05); 59.1% accepted own unclean hand as one of the source of infection while 35.7% respondents mentioned patient’s hand a source. The source of information were teachers/ doctors -77.3%, hospital authority 16.7%, from colleagues 4.4%) and 1.6% from other sources. Majority of the respondents (82.6%) knew correct time for decontamination of hand (20 sec, P < 0.05). According to place of work decontaminate their hands properly as follows- Adult ward 5.7%, Paediatric ward 3.9, OT- 15.6%, OPD 6.3%, and only 13%. The failure of healthcare workers to decontaminate their hands reflects fundamentals of attitudes, beliefs, and behavior. Elementary hygiene practice should be taught and followed explicitly in medical institutes.