Hypertension is a major cause of cardiovascular disease and related mortality worldwide. The presence of general and abdominal obesity in hypertensive individuals increases the risk of cardiovascular mortality. However, evidence on the burden of obesity and hypertension and associated factors are lacking or limited among young adult students in Bangladesh. This study measured the prevalence and factors associated with general and abdominal obesity and hypertension among university students in Bangladesh. In this study, a total of 1011 students (647 males and 364 females) were enrolled on nine public universities in eight divisional regions of Bangladesh. Data were collected on socio-demographic, anthropometric, and lifestyle in a questionnaire form.Unadjusted and adjusted logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the association of general obesity, abdominal obesity and hypertension with different factors. The prevalence of general obesity, abdominal obesity and hypertension was 8.3%, 20.7%, and 10.2%, respectively. The females had a higher prevalence of general obesity (8.8%) and abdominal obesity (26.3%) compared to the males (8.0% and 17.7%, respectively). However, a higher prevalence of hypertension was observed in males (12.2%) than in the female (6.1%) patients. In regression analysis, age showed a significant association with general obesity, whereas, age and female sex were significantly associated with abdominal obesity. The analysis also identified the male sex and high BMI as the increased risk factors for hypertension. Our study suggests a comprehensive screening program and campaigns to increase awareness about obesity and hypertension and its risk factors among young adults in Bangladesh.

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Potable groundwater is the main source of drinking water in Bangladesh. It is continuously polluted by different pollutants and making negative impact on human health. The objectives of this research were to determine the portable water quality and comparison with the standard set by Department of Environment (DoE, 1997), Bangladesh and World Health Organization (WHO, 2011) for assessing the suitability of consumption. A total of 51 groundwater samples was collected from 17 sampling stations at Companiganj Upazila of Sylhet District to analyze pH, iron (Fe), Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) and Total Suspended Solid (TSS). A semi-structured questionnaire survey with 320 purposively selected respondents were conducted to know the people’s perception on human health impacts of ground water. The results revealed that pH values of all stations were within the permissible limit set by DoE and WHO and the range of concentration of Fe, TDS and TSS were 0.3-1.0 mgl-1, 220-2870 mgl-1 and 10-1900 mgl-1, respectively. 58.82% sampling stations were found very high contamination of Fe and TDS followed by medium 11.76% and 23.53%. The TSS values indicated that 11.76% sampling stations had excellent water, while 88.24% had high level of pollution expressed as unacceptable for drinking purposes. The results indicated that 40% respondents were suffered from skin diseases and followed by hair fall (33.9%) and nail damage (26.1%), respectively. 76.47% groundwater samples extremely contaminated with TDS (>1000mgl-1) and this might be indicated that peoples were susceptible to hypertension or blood pressure, gastro-intestinal irritation and cardiovascular disease. Contaminated groundwater were consumed without any purification process, filtering or treatment because of these system were costly for the poor and ultra-poor. So, they prefer to consume contaminated water without any treatment.

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