Status of Hearing Impairment among Handloom Workers in Tangail District of Bangladesh

Industrial noise is one of the major sources of noise pollution. Handloom industry is the biggest handicraft industry in our country; it is the second largest source of rural employment after agriculture. The workers of the handloom industry worked within excessive level of sound. This cross-sectional study was an attempt to see the status of hearing impairment among handloom worker at Tangail District, Bangladesh from August 2016 to December 2016. A total 180 handloom workers were included in this current study. All the respondents were male as handloom work is a strenuous work. The mean age of respondents was 38.18±11.529 years where most of the respondents were of middle age group (21-50) year's age group. Among the participants less than one-fourth was illiterate and rest had primary to secondary level of education. The average income of handloom workers was 13805.56±2764.696 BDT per month. Handloom workers spend average 10 hour for working per day. They were exposed to sound beyond NIOSH recommendation (70-83 dB around handloom machines and 80-90 dB around power loom machines). By self-assessment hearing impairment perception 76.7% participants reported that they had hearing problem. Based on the interpretation of Rinne, Webers and ABC test data indicate that among the respondents around 32.2% were identified with bilateral sensorineural hearing impairment and of them through Pure tone audiometry (PTA) around half were diagnosed as suffering from moderate to severe Noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). Using personal protective measure like ear muffle/ear musk has been recommended.

Iron Polymaltose Complex in the Treatment of Iron Deficiency Anemia in Pregnancy

Iron deficiency anaemia is a major public health problem in pregnancy. About 58% of pregnant women in developed countries are anaemic mainly due to iron deficiency resulting a serious negative consequences on children, mothers and eventually on the nation. This quasi-experimental multi centered study (Before after study) was done to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of Iron Polymaltose Complex (IPC) in the treatment of iron deficiency anaemia and it was performed at the OPD of Bangladesh Medical College and two other clinics of Dhaka city from August 2011 to September 2013. A total of 80 (eighty) subjects were selected by purposive sampling as per inclusion and exclusion criteria. They were treated by Iron Polymaltose-IPC [47mg elemental iron + Folic Acid 0.5mg + Zinc 22.5mg - Once daily orally for 12 weeks]. At the beginning and after 12 weeks of intervention by Iron Polymaltose Complex (IPC) Hb%, Packed Cell Volume (PCV), Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV), Mean Corpuscular Hemoglobin (MCH), Serum iron, and Serum ferritin were measured. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 13.0. Paired and unpaired 't' test was used to analyze differences within groups and between groups. Chi-square test was done to analyze primary efficacy parameters and adverse drug reactions (ADR). Most of the respondents were within the age group of 18-23 and 30-35 years (32.6% each). Significant differences were found by treatment with IPC for 12 weeks in Hb%, PCV, MCV, MCH, Serum iron, and Serum ferritin level. In iron deficiency anaemia during pregnancy IPC may be used as a safe and cost-effective therapeutic management.

Gender Differentials In Nutritional Status of Elderly People In Selected Rural Areas of Bangladesh

Background: The present cross sectional study was undertaken to assess the food habits and nutritional status among elderly people in rural Bangladesh and to compare the same between male and female. A simple random sampling and geographical re-conciliation method was used to select the study population. All the patients in a pre-publicized medical camp were approached and a total of 186 male and 237 female participated in the study. Data were collected through face to face interview with a semi-structured questionnaire and anthropometric measures were collected using instruments. Associations between dietary intake and World Health Organization (WHO) referred Body Mass Index (BMI) range was done using cross tabulation. Results: The mean age of male was 67.69 years and that of female was 65.46 years. The female subjects were higher than males in number in this study. The rate of male literacy was found to be 39.8% where literacy among the female was 13.9%. Among all, 79.6% males were found to be living with their spouse where the rate of living with spouse among the female amounted 53.2%. About half of elderly people were found to be living under poor and 32% in low middle class socio-economic condition. Study revealed that 80.6% male and 78.9% female got no opportunity to take protein-rich food more than three days per week. Again 95.7% male and 97.5% female had no opportunity take more than two servings of protein rich food per week. The similar case occurred in case of taking fatty food, vegetable and fruits per week. Similarly 100 % male and 99.6% female reported that they were taking more than two servings of fatty food per week. No significant association was found between BMI and food intake. The significance was tested by Pearson chi-square. In this test the p –value for protein rich food was 0.234 (p?0.05), while fatty food (0.712), vegetable (0.502) and fruits (0.274) which was more than referred significance p-value ?0.05. Hence, the study confirmed that malnutrition remains a common problem among older people living in rural Bangladesh though there is no significant association was found between food intake and nutrition. Conclusion: Management of malnutrition in case of elderly population requires a multidisciplinary approach that treats pathology and uses both social and dietary forms of intervention. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science Vol. 12 No. 02 April’13 Page 150-157 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjms.v12i2.14943