Discriminating Patients Suffering from Non-Communicable Diseases: A Case Study Among Bangladeshi Adults

Abstract

Although half of annual mortality and almost half of the burden of disease in Bangladesh are for NCDs, less evidence are available to identify the variables 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 most important variables responsible for the presence of non-communicable diseases among the Bangladeshi adults were age followed by marital status, body weight, level of education and other variables. These variables were identified by discriminant analysis. The study was 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 questionnaires. The collected information were 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) was calculated from the collected data. The association of NCDs with social factors and BMI were observed using Chi-square test and hence identified the associated factors with NCDs.

The prevalence of NCDs was observed among 49.4% respondents and 85.3% of them were exclusively diabetic. Another 4% were suffering from diabetes and heart disease. Among the NCDs affected respondents 91.2% belonged to obese and overweight group of respondents. The odd ratio indicated that the prevalence of diabetes was 1.76 times higher among obese and overweight group of respondents compared to other groups.