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BackgroundCOVID-19 is one of the most serious global public health threats creating an alarming situation. Therefore, there is an urgent need for investigating and predicting COVID-19 incidence to control its spread more effectively. This study aim to forecast the expected number of daily total confirmed cases, total confirmed new cases, total deaths and total new deaths of COVID-19 in Bangladesh for next 30 days.MethodsThe number of daily total confirmed cases, total confirmed new cases, total deaths and total new deaths of COVID-19 from 8 March 2020 to 16 October, 2020 was collected to fit an Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model to forecast the spread of COVID-19 in Bangladesh from 17th October 2020 to 15th November 2020. All statistical analyses were conducted using R-3.6.3 software with a significant level of p< 0.05.ResultsThe ARIMA (0,2,1) and ARIMA (0,1,1) model was adopted for forecasting the number of daily total confirmed cases, total deaths and total confirmed new cases, new deaths of COVID-19, respectively. The results showed that an upward trend for the total confirmed cases and total deaths, while total confirmed new cases and total new death, will become stable in the next 30 days if prevention measures are strictly followed to limit the spread of COVID-19.ConclusionsThe forecasting results of COVID-19 will not be dreadful for upcoming month in Bangladesh. However, the government and health authorities should take new approaches and keep strong monitoring of the existing strategies to control the further spread of this pandemic.

PurposeDiabetes mellitus is becoming a growing concern worldwide. Hence, the purpose of this study is to assess the magnitude of poor glycemic control and to identify the determinants of poor glycemic control among diabetic patients attending a tertiary care hospital in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachThis cross-sectional study was conducted among 732 diabetes patients seeking care at the outpatient department of Bangladesh Institute of Health Sciences Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Information, including glycemic status, was collected from patients’ medical records using a structured questionnaire.FindingsAbout 87.6% of the patients were found to have poor glycemic control (glycosylated hemoglobin = 7%). Variables that were significant in bivariate analysis were put into a multivariate model where the factors associated with poor glycemic control were patients aged 41–60 years (odds ratio (OR)=2.26; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.19–4.32,p= 0.013), suffering from diabetes for > 7 years (OR = 1.84; 95% CI: 1.12–2.99,p= 0.015), using insulin (OR = 2.34; 95% CI: 1.23–4.47;p= 0.010) or diet alone (OR = 0.20; 95% CI: 0.05–0.80,p= 0.023) as a type of diabetes treatment and proper use of medicine (OR = 0.37; 95% CI: 0.17–0.82,p= 0.015).Originality/valueThe high prevalence of poor glycemic control among diabetic patients is evident; therefore, strategic management and proper attention focusing on the predictors of poor glycemic control are necessary to reduce the long-term complications of diabetes.

PurposeThis research aimed to study patterns of energy drinks (ED) consumption among university students and to identify the determinants for their preferences.Design/methodology/approachThis cross-sectional study was conducted among 400 students from various departments of Jashore University of Science and Technology, Bangladesh, by convenience sampling. A self-administered, structured questionnaire was used to collect data.FindingsAbout 52.3 per cent of the students were between 21 and 23 years of age, and half of them were male. More than half (53 per cent) of the students had consumed ED at least once in their lifetime. Only 22.1 per cent of these consumers had any knowledge of the ingredients in ED, and 4.3 per cent did not know the possible negative impacts. Bivariate analysis was performed to identify the variables significantly associated with ED consumption among students. The risks of ED consumption were found to be: male gender (Odds Ratio (OR) = 4.04; 95 per cent Confidence Interval (CI) = 2.36–6.92), father educated up to SSC (OR = 18.47; 95 per cent CI = 2.30–148.90) or college and above (OR = 17.01; 95 per cent CI = 2.31–135.60), smoker (OR = 3.87; 95 per cent CI = 1.61–9.35) and doing irregular physical activity (OR = 2.43; 95 per cent CI = 1.23–4.78).Originality/valueED consumption among university students is high, but their perception regarding the ingredients and potential health hazards is opaque. Therefore, it is imperative that at both community and individual levels, interventions should focus on educating and empowering individuals to make firm and positive decisions concerning their dietary habits and health.

Purpose Energy drink (ED) consumption has become a common trend, especially among the youth. Hence, the purpose of this study was undertaken to assess the ED consumption pattern among the university students and investigate the independent predictors for their preference of such drinks. Design/methodology/approach It was a cross-sectional study conducted among 323 students from various departments of Noakhali Science and Technology University, Bangladesh. Findings Among students, about 57 per cent were male, and mostly between 21-23 years. About 31 per cent of the students had never consumed ED, while 69 per cent had consumed such drinks at least once in their lifetime. Only 31.4 per cent of the ever consumer had knowledge of its components, and 14.3 per cent of them did not know the negative effects of ED. Bivariate analysis identified the variables that were significantly associated with students’ consumption of ED. Taking the significant factors into a multivariate model, the risks of ED consumption were male gender (OR = 3.82; 95 per cent CI = 2.24 − 6.52), longer study duration in university (OR = 1.02; 95 per cent CI = 1.00 − 1.03) and doing regular physical activity (OR = 1.69; 95 per cent CI = 1.04 − 2.75). Originality/value High consumption of ED among university students is evident, yet their perception regarding components and potential health hazards of such drinks is opaque. This study results suggest the necessity of formulating policy and intervention strategies concentrating on the predictors of ED consumption to promote consciousness about ingredients and related health effects of ED among students of all levels in Bangladesh and other countries as well.

The efficacy of nisin (25-75 ppm) and effect of storage time on quality attributes of micro-filtered coconut water during refrigerated storage (4°C) for 8 days was investigated in terms of total viable counts, colour, turbidity and overall sensory acceptance. All treatments significantly retarded the bacterial growth in coconut water during storage when compared to the control sample (p < 0.05). The samples treated with 50 and 75 ppm nisin had significantly lower aerobic microbial counts than the control (p < 0.05) without affecting colour, turbidity and sensory acceptability. The treated samples also had the significantly higher scores in overall acceptance than the control sample after 7 days of storage.50 ppm Nisin was suggested to be applied in micro-filtered coconut water without effects on colour, turbidity, and sensory acceptability by a reduction in changes of the microbial growth during the refrigerated storage.

Osteoporosis is the most common systemic skeletal disease characterized by increased bone fragility. There lies an incongruity among research regarding combined supplementation of calcium (Ca) plus vitamin D and loss of bone health. Hence, the present review is aimed to highlight the current development of osteoporosis research and try to solve the inconsistency among the present knowledge. Electronic databases like PubMed, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE were searched from their inception to December 2018 using terms “calcium,” “vitamin D,” and “osteoporosis.” A systemic approach was followed to reach a final of 23 studies assessing the synergetic effect of calcium and vitamin D on osteoporosis and fractures risk. Among the included studies, nineteen have revealed that calcium and vitamin D decrease bone resorption, reduce the incidence of fractures, increase bone mineral density (BMD) and overall bone health. However, no significant osteogenic response was reported in five trials after supplementation with calcium and vitamin D together. Osteoporosis results in a reduced quality of life, increased disability-adjusted life span, and big economic burden to health care systems of countries. Early diagnosis before the occurrence of fractures and by assessing BMD and with early treatment, osteoporosis can be prevented. It is not entirely possible to draw a conclusion regarding beneficial effects of calcium plus vitamin D supplementation; future research based on the fundamentals of bone biology focusing on molecular genetics, and influencing factors of the acquisition of bone mass during growth and bone loss can alleviate present controversies.

Heart disease is considered as one of the major causes of death throughout the world. It cannot be easily predicted by the medical practitioners as it is a difficult task which demands expertise and higher knowledge for prediction. This paper addresses the issue of prediction of heart disease according to input attributes on the basis of data mining techniques. We have investigated the heart disease prediction using KStar, J48, SMO, Bayes Net and Multilayer Perceptron through Weka software. The performance of these data mining techniques is measured by combining the results of predictive accuracy, ROC curve and AUC value using a standard data set as well as a collected data set. Based on performance factor SMO and Bayes Net techniques show optimum performances than the performances of KStar, Multilayer Perceptron and J48 techniques.