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Background: Motor neuron diseases (MNDs) have been traditionally considered to spare cognition. But recent findings show that multiple domains of cognition including language can be involved in MND patients. Most studies on language patterns of MND patients were conducted in Western nations, but data on Indian population is limited. This study is an attempt to explore the language functions of Bengali-speaking MND patients from this part of eastern India. Objective: To determine the prevalence and nature of language dysfunction in MND patients. Materials and Methods: A single-center, hospital-based, observational, cross-sectional study. The Bengali adaptation of the Western Aphasia Battery was administered to 50 cases diagnosed with MND, attending a tertiary care hospital consecutively over a 1-year period, and fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for expressing results. Results: Eighteen percent of cases showed impairments in spontaneous speech. Fluency was impaired in 72%, and 22% cases showed impaired naming. Moreover, 20% and 26% of cases were impaired in repetition and comprehension, respectively. Reading and writing was impaired in 16% and 26% of cases, respectively. Significant difference was found in the primary language skill scores and aphasia quotient across age groups, while no significant difference was found in these scores across education status. Conclusions: This study describes the language profiles of Bengali-speaking MND patients from eastern India, and the findings are similar to previous research works, which have shown morpho-syntactic, lexical-semantic, and phonological errors in language function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Occupational Self-Assessment-Short Form (OSA-SF) is a client-centered instrument designed to assess goal setting and intervention planning for adults with a client-centered approach. This study aimed to assess the psychometric properties of the Bengali-translated Occupational Self-Assessment-Short Form (BOSA-SF), which could enable occupational therapists to evaluate the occupational competence and value of Bengali adults. Method: A total of 170 adult participants participated in the study after the translation phase. The data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis. Results: Among the 12 items, 11 on the competence scale and all 12 on the value scale were unidimensional and demonstrated local independence. The 11 competence items and 12 value items were fitted to the Rasch model, demonstrating good validity and reliability. Conclusion: The 11-item BOSA-SF demonstrates to be a valid and reliable tool for use in client-centered goal setting and intervention planning for Bengali adults. Nonetheless, further research is warranted to conduct more comprehensive analyses that thoroughly assess the functions of the BOSA-SF in various contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Connected speech analysis has been effectively utilized for the diagnosis and disease monitoring of individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Existing research has been conducted mostly in monolingual English speakers with a noticeable lack of evidence from bilinguals and non-English speakers, particularly in non-European languages. Using a case study approach, we characterized connected speech profiles of two Bengali–English bilingual speakers with AD to determine the universal features of language impairments in both languages, identify language-specific differences between the languages, and explore language impairment characteristics of the participants with AD in relation to their bilingual language experience. Method: Participants included two Bengali–English bilingual speakers with AD and a group of age-, gender-, education-, and language-matched neurologically healthy controls. Connected speech samples were collected in first language (L1; Bengali) and second language (L2; English) using a novel storytelling task (i.e., Frog, Where Are You?). These samples were analyzed using an augmented quantitative production analysis and correct information unit analyses for productivity, fluency, syntactic and morphosyntactic features, and lexical and semantic characteristics. Results: Irrespective of the language, AD impacted speech productivity (speech rate and fluency) and semantic characteristics in both languages. Unique language-specific differences were noted on syntactic measures (reduced sentence length in Bengali), lexical distribution (fewer pronouns and absence of reduplication in Bengali), and inflectional properties (no difficulties with noun or verb inflections in Bengali). Among the two participants with AD, the individual who showed lower proficiency and usage in L2 (English) demonstrated reduced syntactic complexity and morphosyntactic richness in English. Conclusions: Evidence from these case studies suggests that language impairment features in AD are not universal across languages, particularly in comparison to impairments typically associated with language breakdowns in English. This study underscores the importance of establishing connected speech profiles in AD for non–English-speaking populations, especially for structurally different languages. This would in turn lead to the development of language-specific markers that can facilitate early detection of language deterioration and aid in improving diagnosis of AD in individuals belonging to underserved linguistically diverse populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies on intimate partner violence (IPV) against women in Bangladesh rarely focused on the effectiveness of primary prevention strategies like legal remedies. There is also a lack of studies on the issues among the ethnic minority communities in the country. This study examines the awareness of laws on IPV (such as recognizing the abusive acts and knowing the sanctions) among the ethnic Garo and Santal and mainstream Bengali communities in rural Bangladesh. The study randomly included 1929 married women and men from 24 villages. It appeared that the respondents were not adequately aware of the relevant legal provisions. There were also gender and ethnic differences in the issues. On average, the respondents maintained a low score on recognizing abusive acts. The awareness was further lower among the women compared to the men. In addition, multivariate analysis indicated that the Bengali women had relatively a better understanding of the issues than the Garo and Santal women. However, the Garo men showed poorer awareness of recognizing the abusive acts than the Bengali and Santal men. On the other hand, the respondents also maintained a very insufficient knowledge of the sanctions against such abusive acts, whereas women also showed a lower awareness compared to their male counterparts. Data further revealed that the Santal women had a more inadequate understanding of the issues than the Bengali and Garo women. However, the Garo men had more awareness of the sanctions than the Bengali and Santal men. The study reveals that people are unfamiliar with the laws governing IPV. It shows that understanding legal issues is another field of gender and ethnic inequality in the country. We suggest that there should be intervention to make aware the citizen, mainly women of all ethnicities, to ensure the efficacy of the laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The Nurture Early for Optimal Nutrition (NEON) study is a multiphase project that aims to optimize feeding, care and dental hygiene practices in South Asian children <2 years in East London, United Kingdom. The multiphase project uses a participatory learning and action (PLA) approach facilitated by a multilingual community facilitator. In this paper, we elaborate on the process and results of the Intervention Development Phase in the context of the wider NEON programme. Methods: Qualitative community‐based participatory intervention codevelopment and adaptation. Setting: Community centres in East London and online (Zoom) meetings and workshops. Participants: In total, 32 participants registered to participate in the Intervention Development Phase. Four Intervention Development workshops were held, attended by 25, 17, 20 and 20 participants, respectively. Results: Collaboratively, a culturally sensitive NEON intervention package was developed consisting of (1) PLA group facilitator manual, (2) picture cards detailing recommended and nonrecommended feeding, care and dental hygiene practices with facilitators/barriers to uptake as well as solutions to address these, (3) healthy infant cultural recipes, (4) participatory Community Asset Maps and (5) list of resources and services supporting infant feeding, care and dental hygiene practices. Conclusion: The Intervention Development Phase of the NEON programme demonstrates the value of a collaborative approach between researchers, community facilitators and the target population when developing public health interventions. We recommend that interventions to promote infant feeding, care and dental hygiene practices should be codeveloped with communities. Recognizing and taking into account both social and cultural norms may be of particular value for infants from ethnically diverse communities to develop interventions that are both effective in and accepted by these communities. Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement: Considerable efforts were placed on Patient/Participant and Public Involvement and Engagement. Five community facilitators were identified, each of which represented one ethnic/language group: (i) Bangladeshi/Bengali and Sylheti, (ii) Pakistani/Urdu, (iii) Indian/Gujrati, (iv) Indian/Punjabi and (v) Sri Lankan/Tamil. The community facilitators were engaged in every step of the study, from the initial drafting of the protocol and study design to the Intervention Development and refinement of the NEON toolkit, as well as the publication and dissemination of the study findings. More specifically, their role in the Intervention Development Phase of the NEON programme was to: 1.Support the development of the study protocol, information sheets and ethics application.2.Ensure any documents intended for community members are clear, appropriate and sensitively worded.3.Develop strategies to troubleshoot any logistical challenges of project delivery, for example, recruitment shortfalls.4.Contribute to the writing of academic papers, in particular reviewing and revising drafts.5.Develop plain language summaries and assist in dissemination activities, for example, updates on relevant websites.6.Contribute to the development of the NEON intervention toolkit and recruitment of the community members.7.Attend and contribute to Intervention Development workshops, ensuring the participant's voices were the focus of the discussion and workshop outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The objective of this paper was to present the results of our study of the utility of bone mineral density (BMD) measurements at various segments of distal forearm in predicting central‐site osteoporosis and deteriorated trabecular microarchitecture. Methods: This was a cross‐sectional study and BMD at the femoral neck, lumbar spine, and distal forearm were assessed using the dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) scanner and bone microarchitecture at lumbar spine by trabecular bone score (TBS). The utility of forearm BMD in predicting osteoporosis as well as the deteriorated TBS was assessed by a receiver operating characteristic analysis. Results: A total of 352 postmenopausal women with mean (SD) age of 60.7 (6.8) years were included. The odds of having osteoporosis at femoral neck [odds ratio (OR) = 14.1, 95% confidence interval (CI): 7.8–25.2] and lumbar spine (OR = 7.5, 95% CI: 4.6–12.1) was highest with the mid‐distal radius. A derived T‐score cut off ≤ −1.6, −1.9, and −1.7 at any segment of the forearm was elucidated to predict osteoporosis at the central‐site, femoral neck, and lumbar spine, respectively, with sensitivity of 80%–88% and specificity of 60%–70%. The T‐scores at all three forearm segments ≤ −1.2 showed fair performance in predicting degraded trabecular microarchitecture. The T‐scores thus derived were further validated in cohort of 360 Bengali postmenopausal women. Conclusion: BMD assessment at the forearm may be utilized in prediction of trabecular microarchitecture and central site osteoporosis at the femoral neck and lumbar spine in postmenopausal women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social cognition deficits are common in clinical populations but there is a dearth of standardized social cognition assessment tools in India. Theory of mind (ToM) is an important aspect of social cognition which is often assessed with the revised reading the mind in eyes test (RMET-R). However, we do not have a statistically validated version of the test for the Indian population. Aim: This study aims to assess the acceptability, reliability, and validity of the Bengali version of the RMET-R. Materials and Methods: We administered the RMET-R to 23 patients with chronic schizophrenia (SCZ), 22 patients with bipolar disorder, and 104 healthy controls (HCs) to evaluate the reliability and validity of the instrument in the Indian (Bengali) population. Results: We obtained moderate internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.6) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.64, P < 0.001). Positive correlations were found between RMET-R and Wechsler picture arrangement (r = 0.60, P < 0.001), picture completion (r = 0.54, P < 0.001), and comprehension subtests (r = 0.48, P < 0.001). Patients with SCZ (M = 49.7, standard deviation [SD] = 16.5) scored significantly lower than HCs (M = 68.9, SD = 13.8) (P = 0.008; Cohen's d = 1.3) on the RMET-R. Thus this tool could discriminate patients who are reported to have Theory of Mind deficits from healthy controls. Conclusion: The Bengali version of the RMET-R is a reliable and valid tool for assessing first-order ToM insofar as the original RMET-R measures this construct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Studies from the different ethnic regions of the world have reported variable results on association of APOE gene polymorphism in stroke. Aim: The aim of this study is to find out the possible association of APOE polymorphism in stroke patients in ethnic Bengali population. Settings and Design: A prospective case–control study was undertaken in the Department of Neurology, Burdwan Medical College, Burdwan, West Bengal, India, over a period of 3 years. Methods: We collected 10 ml venous blood samples from 148 clinically and radiologically diagnosed acute stroke patients (80 of ischemic stroke and 68 of intracerebral hemorrhage) and consecutive 108 ethnic age- and sex-matched controls, in ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid vials after informed written consent. Genomic DNA was prepared at S.N. Pradhan Centre of Neurosciences, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India. Exotic single-nucleotide polymorphisms (rs429358, rs 7412) were analyzed by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism for genotype of APOE. Results: The frequencies of different APOE allele among 80 ischemic stroke patients were 5.6% (n = 9) for E2, 75.68% (n = 121) for E3, and 18.7% (n = 30) for E4. The E3 allele is significantly over-represented (P = 0.004) in controls compared to the patients (88% in controls vs 75.6% ischemic stroke patients and 80% hemorrhagic patients). A significantly high frequency of APOE4 allele was observed in ischemic (18.7%) and hemorrhagic patients (11%) compared to controls (8%). The E4 allele plays a major risk for developing ischemic stroke [odds ratio (OR) = 2.744; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.43–5.10] and E3 plays a protective role for hemorrhagic stroke (OR = 0.53; 95% CI: 0.29–0.96), while E4 allele plays a nonsignificant (P = 0.31) increase in trend in hemorrhage stroke (OR = 1.4). Conclusions: There is significant association of APOE gene polymorphism in stroke patients of ethnic Bengali population. The E4 allele increases significant risk for development of ischemic strokes, and it also plays nonsignificant increase in trend in hemorrhagic strokes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The pattern of post-stroke aphasia in speakers of Bengali language has not previously been reported in the literature. Furthermore, the inter-relationship between age, gender, and level of education and aphasia typology has remained unsettled thus far. Aims: To investigate the incidence and type of aphasia in first-ever acute stroke patients who were speakers of Bengali language. Methods & Procedures: Bengali version of Western Aphasia Battery was used for language assessment in our study participants. Lesion localization was done by using magnetic resonance imaging(3T) for ischemic stroke (if not contraindicated) and computed tomography for hemorrhagic stroke. Among 515 screened cases of first-ever acute stroke, 208 presented with aphasia. Language assessment was done between 7 and 14 days in all study participants. Outcomes & Results: The incidence of post-stroke aphasia in our sample was found at 40.39%. Types of aphasia were – Broca's (38.5%) followed by global (27.9%); Wernicke's (12.5%); transcortical motor (9.6%); anomic (4.3%); transcortical sensory (3.8%); isolation (1.9%); and conduction (1.4%). Mean number of years of formal education was significantly higher in fluent aphasia group in comparison with non-fluent group (10.51 years versus 7.01 years, p = 0.003). In logistic regression analysis, location of lesion (posterior perisylvian) (p = 0.007, OR = 5.406, 95% CI, 1.602–18.240) and education (p = 0.044, OR = 1.097, 95% CI, 1.003–1.199) were two independent predictors favoring fluent aphasia. Conclusions: Aphasia among post-stroke Bengali patients is quite frequent. The commonest type of aphasia in our sample was Broca's aphasia. Bengali-speaking people with higher education were more likely to present fluent aphasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A dedicated home birth team was established at a large teaching hospital in a deprived inner London borough. Aim: To increase the home birth rate in Tower Hamlets and offer continuity of carer to women opting for home birth. Methods: Data were collected on all 90 women receiving care by the team. Data, including demographics, care episodes and maternal and neonatal outcomes, were recorded and analysed using Microsoft Excel 2010. Findings: With a dedicated home birth team, the home birth rate in Tower Hamlets increased by 68% compared to the previous year, while still remaining a small proportion of all births in the borough. The overall transfer rate was 32.6%, in line with national figures. Outcomes for both mothers and babies were very good, with 89% of women who started their labour at home achieving a normal vaginal birth. Feedback was exceptionally positive, with 100% of women who provided feedback recommending the service. The women being referred and choosing homebirth were not demographically representative of the population of the borough. Conclusions: The provision of a dedicated homebirth team in Tower Hamlets has been a positive addition to the area's existing maternity services. More needs to be done to improve the visibility of the team in order to secure more referrals and increase the homebirth rate, especially among the Bengali and other ethnic minority populations, to enable equitable access to homebirth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We describe differences in linear growth as measured by height-for-age z-score (HAZ) between children from Bengali and tribal populations in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh and examine factors associated with HAZ in both groups. Design: We used nutritional surveillance data collected in Bangladesh from 2003 to 2006 to analyze HAZ among 12,006 children aged 6–23 months and conducted multivariate linear regression and Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition to quantify the relative contribution of independent variables to differences in HAZ between Bengali and tribal children. Results: Mean HAZ was stable for Bengali children (−1.88 in 2003 to −1.90 in 2006) but improved for tribal children (−1.87 in 2003 to −1.68 in 2006). The difference between groups was significant across the study period (p = 0.008). Among Bengali children, HAZ was positively associated with father's schooling (β = 0.221; 95% CI: 0.079–0.363). Among tribal children, HAZ was positively associated with consumption of animal source foods (β = 0.073; 95% CI: 0.051–0.096) and goat ownership (β = 0.240; 95% CI: 0.025–0.454). Results of a likelihood ratio test indicated that distance to a health center was inversely associated with HAZ among tribal children (p < 0.001). Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition demonstrated a difference in pooled coefficients between groups (p = 0.004), explained primarily by differences in coefficients for paternal education (p = 0.001) and village-level prevalence of open defecation (p = 0.004). Conclusions: Different responses among Bengali and tribal children to village-level open defecation are an explanatory factor for the difference in HAZ between Bengali and tribal populations. Open defecation may also act a proxy for unmeasured factors such as household environmental conditions and food hygiene. Abbreviations: Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT); height-for-age z-scores (HAZ); Nutrition Surveillance Project (NSP); World Health Organization (WHO) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We attempted to find out how menopausal problems cluster with each other. The study was conducted among a group of women belonging to a Bengali-speaking Hindu ethnic group of West Bengal, a state located in Eastern India. We recruited 1,400 participants for the study. Information on sociodemographic aspects and menopausal problems were collected from these participants with the help of a pretested questionnaire. Results of cluster analysis showed that vasomotor, vaginal, and urinary problems cluster together, separately from physical and psychosomatic problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The study was conducted to assess the school activity of thalassemic children and to reveal the relationship between school activity with the socio-demographic factors as well as clinico-therapeutic profile. Methods: A total of 365 admitted thalassemic patients of Burdwan Medical College (ages 5 to 12 years) were participated in this cross sectional descriptive study conducted on from July 2011 to June 2012. Their parents were interviewed using school functioning domain of Paediatric Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 Generic Core Scale. Independent t test or Mann-Whitney U test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) or Kruskal-Wallis test were applied to observe the difference between mean values in accordance to their applicability. Statistically significant factors in bivariate analysis were considered for binary logistic regression. Results: Mean score of school activity was 49.42 ± 15.30 out of 100. 49.3% thalassemic children had fair (50-74.9) school functioning score. Twenty percent of the children were presently not going to school, 11.8% never went to school and the remaining 8.2% were dropped out. Binary logistic regressions revealed that school activity worsened 4 times with the increase in frequency of blood transfusion single time per year. Patients belonging to joint family and family with no positive history of such disease, had 3.4 and 3.9 times worse school activity than nuclear family and family with positive child history respectively. Male children had 2 times more poor school activity than female. Conclusion: School functioning activity of Bengali thalassemic children is generally poor, but counselling of parents and families can improve the situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postnatal depression carries a significant health burden for mothers and their offspring. However, the majority of screening or treatment studies for postnatal depression have been carried out on white or European populations and clinicians have been appropriately cautious about applying these findings to different cultural groups. This study describes the development and use of a Bengali version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Forty-eight Bangladeshi postnatal women in both Bangladesh and England were interviewed by a Syhletti/Bengali-speaking psychologist. The translated version of the EPDS was presented in the usual way, along with a standardized interview about the degree of social support and a translated version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Although one item of the EPDS presented some translation difficulties, the majority of items obtained reasonable semantic equivalence and were successfully rated by the women in the study. Preliminary examination of the psychometric properties of the scale suggested adequate reliability for the scale. Higher EPDS scores had both a significant positive association with less social support and higher scores on the GHQ. While this is not a screening validation study of the Bengali version of the EPDS, the findings do provide preliminary evidence that postnatal depression screening programmes may be an appropriate and inexpensive method of identifying postnatal distress in Bangladeshi women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]