Objective: To determine the prevalence and associated risk factors of sepsis among neonates admitted into neonatal intensive care units (NICU) of public hospitals in Dhaka. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 173 neonates admitted into the NICUs of Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) and Dhaka Shishu (Children) Hospital from March 1, 2016 to September 30, 2016 at Dhaka, Bangladesh. On the basis of the presence of clinical signs and symptoms of sepsis, neonates were admitted into the NICUs. The weight of the baby was measured and blood culture, complete blood count (CBC), C-reactive protein (CRP) and urine R/M/E were done at the time of admission. The neonates, who had positive blood culture reports, were confirmed as having sepsis. After receiving informed written consent, maternal data were collected from the mother of the neonate and neonatal data were collected from NICUs. Results: The prevalence of sepsis among the neonates admitted into NICU of the concerned public hospitals in Dhaka was 69.35%. In the multiple logistic regression model, perinatal asphyxia (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 3.37, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.27-8.90), presence of infection at umbilical cord (aOR = 3.32, 95% CI = 1.40-7.85), history of bottle feeding of the neonates (aOR = 3.02, 95% CI = 1.11-8.25) and pre-existing maternal infection (aOR = 4.44, 95% CI = 1.92-10.26) were significantly (p-value < 0.05) associated with neonatal sepsis. The odds of developing sepsis among the neonates with ≤ 2.5 kg weight at admission was more than three times higher (aOR 3.82, 95% CI = 1.59-9.19) than neonates with admission weight > 2.5 kg. Conclusion: Like other South Asian countries, the prevalence of neonatal sepsis is alarming in Bangladesh. Further research should be conducted to measure the burden of infections in the entire neonatal period and observe the effects of biological risk factors on the early and lateonset neonatal sepsis.

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Objective To measure the efficacy of school-based nutrition education on dietary diversity of the adolescent girls in Bangladesh. Methods A matched, pair-cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted from July 2019 to September 2020. Randomization was done to select intervention and control schools. There were 300 participants (150 in the intervention and 150 in the control arm) at baseline. We randomly selected our study participants (adolescent girls) from grades six, seven, and eight of each school. Our intervention components included parents’ meetings, eight nutrition education sessions, and the distribution of information, education, and communication materials. An hour-long nutrition education session was provided using audio-visual techniques in a class of intervention school once a week by trained staffs of icddr,b for two months. Data on dietary diversity, anthropometry, socio-economic and morbidity status, a complete menstrual history, and haemoglobin status of adolescent girls were collected at recruitment and after five months of intervention. We calculated the mean dietary diversity score of adolescent girls at baseline and at the endline. As the dietary diversity score was incomparable between the control and intervention arm at baseline, we performed the difference-in-difference analysis to assess the effect of the intervention. Results Mean age of the adolescent girls was 12.31 years and 12.49 years in the control and intervention arms respectively. Percentages of consumption of organ meat, vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds were higher in the intervention arm than in the control arm at the end-line. The mean dietary diversity score remained unchanged in the control arm at 5.55 (95% CI: 5.34–5.76) at baseline and 5.32 (95% CI: 5.11–5.54) at the endline. After the intervention, mean dietary diversity increased from 4.89 (95% CI: 4.67–5.10) at baseline to this mean was 5.66 (95% CI: 5.43–5.88) at the endline. Result from the difference-in-difference analysis revealed that the mean dietary diversity was likely to increase by 1 unit due to intervention. Conclusion The shorter duration of the intervention in our study could not show whether it could change the behavior of adolescent girls in increasing dietary diversity through school-based nutrition education, but it showed a pathway for increasing dietary diversity at school. We recommend including more clusters and other food environment elements in retesting to increase precision and acceptability. Trial registration This study was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, trial registration no: NCT04116593. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04116593.

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