PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

H Begum

Publications and source records attributed to H Begum.

12 recordsLinked to original sources

Energy intake and expenditure of obese and non-obese urban Bangladeshi children.

A case control study was conducted in Dhaka city to measure the energy intake and expenditure among 220 obese children of 4-10 years age group and 220 randomly selected age and sex matched controls. A 24 hour dietary recall was used to assess the energy intake. Data on energy expenditure was obtained by 24 hour physical activity recall. The mean energy intake of obese children (2056 +/- 751 kcal/d) was found to be significantly higher (P<0.001) compared to the non obese (1508 +/- 529 kcal/d). No sex difference was found in both obese and non obese groups. Mean energy expenditure of the obese children (1868 +/- 313 kcal/d vs 1495 +/- 200 kcal/d) was significantly higher than the non-obese (P<0.001). Of the obese, boys expended more energy than the girls (P=0.01). Furthermore, physical activity level (1.40 +/- 0.09 vs 1.35 +/- 0.14) was significantly higher among the non obese than their obese counterpart (P<0.001). However, energy balance was significantly higher among the obese (P<0.001). Dose response of energy balance shows the estimated relative risk of obesity increases with higher level of energy balance (P<0.001). The findings of this study revealed that energy balance as a result of higher energy intake and lower energy expenditure was one of the important risk factors for the development of obesity among the children of Dhaka city. Thus, appropriate interventions like behavioural change regarding food habits and physical activities are recommended.

Bangladesh↗

Poverty and health ethics in developing countries.

Developing countries face difficulties of exploitation, dehumanisation and lack of ethical professionalism, to an extent that developed countries do not encounter. Poverty-related difficulties include lack of infrastructure, unreasonable dominance of defence-related expenses in the budget, lack of a sufficient number of health care providers, absence of accountability for serious medical malpractice, as well as exploitation of patients in pharmaceutical trials. This country report presents the case of Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world and therefore a good example for the deplorable condition of the health sector in developing countries.

Attitude to Health↗

Diagnosis and management of febrile children using the WHO/UNICEF guidelines for IMCI in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the fever module in the WHO/UNICEF guidelines for the integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) identifies children with bacterial infections in an area of low malaria prevalence. METHODS: Physicians assessed a systematic sample of 669 sick children aged 2-59 months who presented to the outpatient department of Dhaka Shishu Hospital, Bangladesh. FINDINGS: Had IMCI guidelines been used to evaluate the children, 78% of those with bacterial infections would have received antibiotics: the majority of children with meningitis (100%), pneumonia (95%), otitis media (95%) and urinary tract infection (83%); and 50% or less of children with bacteraemia (50%), dysentery (48%), and skin infections (30%). The current fever module identified only one additional case of meningitis. Children with bacteraemia were more likely to be febrile, feel hot, and have a history of fever than those with dysentery and skin infections. Fever combined with parental perception of fast breathing provided a more sensitive fever module for the detection of bacteraemia than the current IMCI module. CONCLUSIONS: In an area of low malaria prevalence, the IMCI guidelines provide antibiotics to the majority of children with bacterial infections, but improvements in the fever module are possible.

Bacterial Infections↗

Health care, ethics and nursing in Bangladesh: a personal perspective.

Health care in Bangladesh is in a sad condition, with not enough doctors and nurses available to serve its people, but, even with this limited number of health care professionals, better care would be possible if greed for money and unaccountability to the people were controlled by the Government. Conditions for members of the nursing profession are not acceptable for those who are dedicated to serving the sick. Acknowledgement of nursing's professional dignity is almost completely absent. In addition, the salary earned is not enough to make a living. There are in existence professional associations who are struggling for the rights of the nursing community, although few concrete results have yet been seen. This article is written from the perspective of the author's position as a member of the Board and Treasurer of the International Association of Bioethics, and her interest in feminism and bioethics, which justifies her link with oppressed nurses (because most are women) and unethical practices in the nursing profession in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh↗

Acute respiratory infections (ARI) in rural Bangladesh: perceptions and practices.

Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) are a major cause of death in children under five in rural Bangladesh. A popular strategy for lowering ARI mortality in such settings includes detecting and managing pneumonia in children at the community level. The success of programs using this approach requires a well-trained community-based cadre of health workers and the appropriate utilization of services provided. Determinants of health care seeking behavior are clearly of interest in this regard. A qualitative study was conducted in Matlab, Bangladesh to describe community perceptions of signs and symptoms of ARI, case management behavior, and constraints to service utilization. Mothers recognized pneumonia and thought it to be caused by "exposure to cold." They were able to identify labored breathing, chest retractions, lethargy, and inability to feed as signs of severe disease needing treatment outside the home. Nevertheless, similar illnesses were sometimes believed to be due to attack by evil influences. In these cases, spiritual healers were sought and allopathic treatment was avoided or delayed. The mothers' observance of purdah and "proper" behavior were reported to play a role in prevention of child death from disease. Implications of this belief and its impact on service utilization are discussed. Suggestions for program managers are made in addition to recommendations for further research.

Acute Disease↗

Abnormalities of early conceptus: a morphological study of 500 cases.

Although MR and PT are post-conception family planning measures, a large number of women were found to be non-pregnant. In the absence of direct evidence, presence of necrosis in the placental tissue in 20.8% cases is regarded as suggestive of abnormal ova which might have ended in abortion.

Abortion, Induced↗

Cross-cultural analysis of students' sexual standards.

Our purpose was to investigate, cross-culturally, university students' premarital sexual standards. A number of predictions were derived from the work of Cristensen, Reiss, and Burr. Data were collected via self-administered questionnaires from over 1100 English-speaking respondents in five "cultures" (four countries). These cultural contexts had a strong effect on the attitudes and behavior of individual respondents. As predicted, the difference in the standards held by males and females was small in highly permissive societies. Negative consequences of premarital intercourse (i.e., guilt) were reported by the highest proportion of sexually experienced respondents in the most restrictive society. An unsuccessful effort was made to predict how the correlation between permissiveness and such variables as religiosity would change in different cultures. Across all five cultures, greater courtship participation, less religiosity, greater physical attractiveness, and spending less time with one's family were associated with greater permissiveness. Finally, students from high-status backgrounds were generally more permissive.

Adolescent↗

Carbohydrate tolerance status in patients with myocardial infarction.

Hyperglycemia is an important independent risk factor in the development of coronary artery disease. Sixty one patients suffering from chronic and acute myocardial infarction out of which 12 patients were diabetic and 10 normal control subjects were investigated. The patients without diabetes and control subjects were subjected to oral and intravenous glucose tolerance tests. It was observed that the post load glucose level of most of the patients and fasting insulin level of patients without diabetes were higher as compared with control subjects. From the intravenous glucose tolerance test, half life of glucose and glucose assimilation coefficient were determined. Half life of glucose was increased significantly and glucose assimilation coefficient was decreased in the patients with myocardial infarction as compared with those of control subjects. The observations confirm that carbohydrate intolerance in myocardial infarction is not due to suppression of insulin secretion but due to peripheral utilization.

Blood Glucose↗