A Study on Identification of Socioeconomic Variables Associated with Non-Communicable Diseases Among Bangladeshi Adults

Abstract

Although half of annual mortality and almost half of the burden of disease in Bangladesh are for NCDs, less evidences are available to identify the factors responsible for NCDs. The aim of the present work is to identify the factors associated with NCDs in a representative sample of families of students of American International University - Bangladesh (AIUB). The study is based on 785 adult respondents from families of 2% randomly selected students. The students themselves collected the information through a pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire. The collected information is of residence, sex, age, height, weight, education, occupation, marital status, physical work, monthly income, family size, smoking habit and food habit along with suffering of any non-communicable disease and its treatment. Body Mass Index (BMI) is calculated from the collected data. The association of NCDs with social factors and BMI are observed using Chi-square test and hence identified the associated factors with NCDs. Logistic regression is performed to identify the most important factors responsible for NCDs. The prevalence of NCDs is observed among 49.4% respondents and 85.3% of them are exclusively diabetic. Another 4% are suffering from diabetes and heart disease. Among the NCDs affected respondents 91.2% belong to obese and overweight group of respondents. The odd ratio indicates that the prevalence of diabetes is 1.76 times higher among obese and overweight group of respondents compared to other groups.