Background: Anemia is an important risk factor for the health of children as it leads to delayed growth and has long term impacts on neurodevelopment and behavior which causes child morbidity and mortality. Though the rate of severe anemia is almost ignorable in Bangladesh, the overall prevalence of anemia is still very high. Thus this study designed to identify determinants of severity levels of anemia among children aged 6-59 months from the nationally representative 2011 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS). Method: A total of 2188 children aged 6-59 months with complete information on the selected predictors were finally identified from data of this cross sectional survey. Proportional odds model was applied to assess the impacts of determinant on severity level of anemia. Results: Among 2188 children sampled, 24.8%, 32.3% and 42.9% were severely or moderately anemic, mildly anemic, and non-anemic, respectively. Out of children who resided in urban areas, 27.1% were mildly anemic, and 21.1% were severely or moderately anemic. Stunting, division, wealth index, mother's anemia status, age of child, water facility and mother's body mass index were found to be statistically significant determinants of severity levels of childhood anemia. Test of parallelism showed that the odds ratios were constant across all cutoff points of childhood anemia status at 5% level. Conclusions: In summary, our analysis highlights concerning continuing public health challenge presented by anemia in Bangladesh. This study explores the factors associated with the severity level anemia.

Women's autonomy or empowerment is an important issue to achieve targets for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Bangladesh. There are several indicators to measure the women empowerment. Health seeking information is one of the most important indicators in this view. This study aims at identifying women's maternal and child health-care seeking in relation to women empowerment in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2014 data was used for the study. A total of 1875 women of reproductive age with complete information on the selected predictors were identified for this analysis by multistage stratified cluster sampling design. Multiple logistic regression and X 2 statistic were used to study determinant factors. A p-value less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Among 1875 women sampled, 87.7% and 88.5% were received antenatal care and postnatal care respectively. Out of women who resided in urban areas, 91.2% women got postnatal care and 93.7% women received antenatal care where as only 83.4% rural women's get antenatal care and 86.6% women got postnatal care respectively. Division, type of residence, respondent's education level, wealth index, decision maker for using contraception, partner's education level, respondent's currently working status, beating justified if wife goes out without telling husband, neglects the children, argues with husband, refuses to have sex with husband, burns the food respectively, women's body mass index and age of 1st birth were found to be statistically significant determinants of receiving antenatal care. Type of residence, wealth index, respondent's currently working status, person who usually decides on visits to family or relatives, beating justified if wife argues with husband were found to be statistically significant determinants of receiving postnatal care. In summary, our analysis highlights concerning continuing healthcare-seeking challenges in Bangladesh. This study explores the factors associated with women's autonomy and reproductive healthcare-seeking behavior in Bangladesh.

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Introduction. Anemia is indeed a significant risk factor for children’s health as it affects growth retardation and has severe short and prolonged effects that follow in morbidity and death. Notwithstanding such ways to tackle anemia, the prevalence remains high in India and poses a severe public health concern. Objectives. The primary focus of this study was to find the prevalence and to determine the factors associated with the anemia of children under five years of age in India. Problem Statement. The increasing prevalence of childhood anemia and the life-threatening consequences for millions of children in India are a major concern. Knowing the relevant associated factors with childhood anemia is essential to reduce the frequency and severity level. Study design. For analysis purposes, this study utilized a cross-sectional study design. Methodology. Using the Indian Demographic and Health Survey 2015–16 data, we used chi-squared and gamma tests to find the association. Then, we utilized multinomial logistic regression and ordinal logistic regression to find the better model and the influencing factors of anemia in India. Results. In our study, we have found that children with highly educated mothers were 36.7% less likely (OR = 0.633, P ≤ 0.001 , 95% CI: 0.608, 0.658) to be higher anemic than the children with not educated mother. Children with moderate and severe anemic mothers were 163.3% (OR = 2.633, P ≤ 0.001 , 95% CI: 2.565, 7.704) more likely to be higher anemic than the children with not anemic mother. Not stunting children were 21.9% (OR = 0.781, P ≤ 0.001 , 95% CI: 0 .764, 0.797) less likely to be higher anemic than the stunting children. Children aged 36–59 months were 73.9% (OR = 0.361, P ≤ 0.001 , 95% CI: 0.353, 0.369) less likely to be higher anemic than the children aged 6–24 months. Again, the ACI value revealed that ordinal logistic regression was a better-fitted model for these data. Conclusion and contribution. The variables such as stunting, underweight, wasting, child age, size of the child, and source of drinking water were the most critical indicators for child anemia in India. In summary, our study result indicated the major socioeconomic and demographic factors associated with childhood anemia in India, which can help the policymaker to take quick decision to reduce the severity level.

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