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Women Are More Vulnerable to Non-communicable Diseases in Rural and Urban Bangladesh (P18-082-19).

Objectives
In Bangladesh, the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCD) and their risk factors is increasing. We wanted to assess the vulnerability of women by analyzing the differences in risk factors by gender.


Methods
Between February to May 2018, we carried out a cross-sectional survey to determine the baseline status of the NCD risk factors and prevalence of hypertension and diabetes among >30 years old men and women in selected intervention and control sites in the rural and urban areas of an NCD project in Bangladesh. We interviewed 2464 men (1268 in rural and 1196 in urban areas) and 2466 women (1273 in rural and 1193 in urban areas) and administered blood pressure and anthropometric assessment using the World Health Organization STEPS questionnaire and standard operating procedures. We carried out descriptive analysis using STATA 13.0.


Results
Ninety seven % of men were married at the time of interview but 22% of women were widowed. Prevalence of inadequate fruits and vegetable consumption (77% vs 65%), lack of physical activity (78% vs 59%), overweight and obesity (37% vs 18%), high waist circumference (31% vs 5%), hypertension (28% vs 24%), uncontrolled hypertension after medication (44% vs 63%), self-reported diabetes (11% vs 9%) was higher among women than men. Treatment seeking from a doctor for hypertension (76% vs 73%), intake of anti-diabetic drugs (94% vs 89%) was lower among women than men.


Conclusions
In Bangladesh, the prevalence of selected behavioral and clinical risk factors was higher among women than men. Treatment seeking behavior is slightly better among men than the women. The government should take the vulnerability of women into account while designing and implementing programs to prevent and control NCD in Bangladesh.


Funding Sources
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).