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Cases of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are underreported in Bangladesh. Women in general suffer from poor sexual health outcomes due to a lack of access to sexual health services. mHealth, a digital approach to STI services, is an easier and cheaper way to disseminate health information in Bangladesh. However, women have less autonomy in accessing STI services and it is important to learn if, how and/or why women use mHealth. A qualitative study was conducted with 26 medical doctors to explore their perceptions of the mHealth STI services used by Bangladeshi women. Themes were grouped under four categories: (1) provider perceptions of mHealth for sexual healthcare; (2) the health literacy of women clients; (3) cost and maintaining timeliness in providing mHealth services; (4) mHealth service accessibility. Data suggest that mHealth can play a significant role in improving the awareness and utilization of STI services in Bangladeshi women. Successful opportunities for STI service expansion using mHealth were identified, depending on the quality and type of service delivery options, awareness of challenges related to health literacy framework, cost, accessibility to information and availability of culturally competent health experts to disseminate health information. We identify the need to increase access and use of mHealth services for sexual health, as it provides an innovative platform to bridge the health communication gaps in sexual health for Bangladeshi women.

Our study aimed to understand the acceptance level of the COVID-19 vaccine and its determinants among the adult Bangladeshi population. Methodology: This cross-sectional study was conducted in all eight divisions of Bangladesh. Data from 7,357 adult respondents were collected between January 17 and February 2, 2021, using a self-administered semi-structured questionnaire. Statistical software STATA (Version 16.1) was used for all analyses. Results: The majority of study participants were from the Dhaka division (34.24%). The most common age group was 30 years (46.18%). Almost two-thirds of respondents were male (65.50%) and married (67.76%). A large portion (79.85%) of people who had positive vaccine intentions believed that vaccination should be made mandatory for everyone. The majority of the respondents thought that the vaccine would work against COVID-19 infection (67%). In the binary logistic regression analysis, participants who had the education level of graduation or above (AOR ¼ 1.80), age 50 years (AOR ¼ 1.97), students (AOR ¼ 2.98), monthly income 41,000 BDT (AOR ¼ 2.22), being resident of rural area (AOR ¼ 2.24), respondents from Khulna division (AOR ¼ 6.43) were more likely to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Those who had family members diagnosed with COVID-19 (AOR ¼ 1.24), presence of chronic disease (AOR ¼ 0.72), and those who were vaccinated in the last few years (AOR ¼ 1.32) were also more likely to accept the COVID-19 vaccine. Conclusion: Most of the respondents were willing to be vaccinated based on the belief that the vaccine will work against COVID-19. As rumors are generating daily, there is a need for policy-level initiative and evidence-based mass media promotion to keep inspired the general Bangladeshi people to accept the COVID-19 vaccine whenever it will be available at the individual level.

Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) quickly surged the whole world and affected people’s physical, mental, and social health thereby upsetting their quality of life. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the quality of life (QoL) of COVID-19 positive patients after recovery in Bangladesh. This was a study of adult (aged ≥18 years) COVID-19 individuals from eight divisions of Bangladesh diagnosed and confirmed by Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) from June 2020 to November 2020. Given a response rate of 60% in a pilot study, a random list of 6400 COVID-19 patients was generated to recruit approximately 3200 patients from eight divisions of Bangladesh and finally a total of 3244 participants could be recruited for the current study. The validated Bangla version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief (WHOQOL-BREF) questionnaire was used to assess the QoL. Data were analyzed by STATA (Version 16.1) and R (Version 4.0.0). All the procedures were conducted following ethical approval and in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The mean scores of QoL were highest for the physical domain (68.25±14.45) followed by social (65.10±15.78), psychological (63.28±15.48), and environmental domain (62.77±13.07). Psychological and physical domain scores among females were significantly lower than the males (p<0.001). The overall quality of life was lower in persons having a chronic disease. Participants over 45 years of age were 52% less likely to enjoy good physical health than the participants aged below 26 years (AOR: 0.48, CI: 0.28–0.82). The quality of life of employed participants was found 1.8 times higher than the unemployed (AOR: 1.80, CI: 1.11–2.91). Those who were admitted to hospitals during infection had a low QoL score in physical, psychological, and socials domains. However, QoL improved in all aspect except the psychological domain for each day passed after the diagnosis. These findings call for a focus on the quality of life of the COVID-19 affected population, with special emphasis given to females, older adults, unemployed, and people with comorbidities.

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