The age at menarche and its association with nutritional status in a rural area of Bangladesh was determined. A cross-sectional study was conducted in four villages of Rupganj Thana of Narayanganj district. Data was collected through October to December 1996 using a pre-tested structured questionnaire interview schedule, and nutritional status was measured by weight, height, body mass index (BMI) and physical examination. Data were obtained on 436 adolescent girls aged 10-17 years. Among them, 165 (37.8%) girls had commenced menarche. The mean age at menarche as determined by retrospective recall was 13 years SD 0.89 (n = 165). The median age at menarche determined by the status quo method was 13.0. Among the adolescents 60.1% were thin (BMI < 5th centile WHO recommended reference) and 48.2% were stunted (< 3rd centile NCHS/WHO). The mean weight and BMI were significantly higher among the menstruating girls of 13, 14 and 15 years (p < 0.01) than non-menstruating girls. The mean height was found to be significantly higher at 11-14 years among the menstruating girls (p < 0.05). A lower prevalence of angular stomatitis was found among the menstruating adolescent girls compared with the non-menstruating girls, 36.4% versus 46.5%, although this was statistically non-significant (odds ratio = 0.66, 95% CI 0.43-1.00). For glossitis, no significant difference was found. Among the menstruating girls 12.1% were suffering from menorrhagia and 31.5% from dysmenorrhoea. We conclude that the age of menarche among this rural Bangladeshi community is not as delayed as expected. Not surprisingly, menarche is associated with better nutritional status. The surveyed population had extremely high rates of undernutrition which suggests that adolescents in this and similar situations require specific intervention programmes to improve their nutritional status.

We explore the characteristics of 96190 wet events (WE) defined as consecutive 3-hourly rainfall >= 1 mm/3h from a network of 34 stations across Bangladesh. Nearly 60% (5%) of wet events last <= 3 (>= 15) hours. The WEs are dynamically clustered into four "canonical" storm types (ST), mostly discretized by their duration, but also their mean and maximal intensity. While durations, total amounts and wet contiguous areas of WEs are positively related, their mean intensity is nearly independent of them. ~ 60% of WEs are associated with ST#1, that is short and small WEs and very low rainfall amounts (usually < 10 mm), ~15% of WEs are associated with either (ST#2) short/small WEs but with intense rainfall, probably mostly related to scattered thunderstorms, or (ST#3) longer/larger WEs but with less intense rainfall. The last ST (ST#4) is rare (~ 6%), related to very long durations and large wet areas, and includes the wettest WEs. It is especially frequent over southeastern Bangladesh. ST#2 to #4 contribute almost equally to the local-scale total amount of rainfall (27-29% each in mean) while ST#1, despite its individual low rainfall amount, still includes ~ 15% of it. ST#2 (ST#4) is related to the highest probability of occurrence of 3-hourly (daily) extremes. ST#4 occurrence is the most impacted by synoptic Indian lows/depressions as well as the main modes of intraseasonal variation, while ST#1 and #2 are also significantly impacted by intraseasonal modes but in reverse manner than ST#4.

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This work focuses on the analysis of the performance of satellite-based precipitation products for monitoring extreme rainfall events. Five precipitation products are inter-compared and evaluated in capturing indices of extreme rainfall events during 1998-2019 considering four indices of extreme rainfall. Satellite products show a variable performance, which in general indicates that the occurrence and amount of rainfall of extreme events can be both underestimated or overestimated by the datasets in a systematic way throughout the country. Also, products that consider the use of ground truth data have the best performance.