The current study is an attempt to explore under-five child malnutrition in a low-income population setting using the Extended Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (ECIAF).

Data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2017–2018 were analysed. Malnutrition using ECIAF was estimated using stunting, wasting underweight and overweight. Multilevel logistic regression models identified factors associated with malnutrition. Geospatial analysis was conducted using R programming.

Bangladesh.

Children under 5 years of age.

In Bangladesh, as indicated by the ECIAF, approximately 40·8 % (95 % CI: 39·7, 41·9) of children under five experience malnutrition, whereas about 3·3 % (95 % CI: 2·9, 3·7) were overweight. Children of parents with no formal education (56·3 %, 95 % CI: 50·8, 61·8), underweight mothers (53·4 %, 95 % CI: 50·4, 56·3), belonging to the lowest socio-economic strata (50·6 %, 95 % CI: 48·3, 53·0), residing in rural areas (43·3 %, 95 % CI: 41·9, 44·6) and aged below 3 years (47·7 %, 95 % CI: 45·2, 50·2) demonstrated a greater age- and sex-adjusted prevalence of malnutrition. The Sylhet division (Eastern region) exhibited a higher prevalence of malnutrition (> 55·0 %). Mothers with no formal education (adjusted OR (AOR): 1·51, 95 % CI: 1·08, 2·10), underweight mother (AOR: 1·54, 95 % CI: 1·03, 1·83), poorest socio-economic status (AOR: 2·14, 95 % CI: 1·64, 2·81), children aged 24–35 months (AOR: 2·37, 95 % CI: 1·97, 2·85) and fourth and above birth order children (AOR: 1·41, 95 % CI: 1·16, 1·72) were identified key factors associated with childhood malnutrition while adjusting community- and household-level variations.

In Bangladesh, two out of five children were malnourished, and one in thirty-five children was overweight. Continuous monitoring of the ECIAF over time would facilitate tracking changes in the prevalence of different forms of malnutrition, helping to plan interventions and assess the effectiveness of interventions aimed at addressing both undernutrition and overweight.

A single-item depression measure may not be adequate in capturing the complex entity of mental health, despite wide use of this indicator in community studies. This study evaluated the accuracy of a single-question depression measure in comparison to two composite indices–the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CESD) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS).

A total of 800 elderly participants ranging from 60 to 89 years of age and residing in Seoul were recruited using a multistage sampling scheme in 2015. The survey was conducted by trained interviewers with a constructed questionnaire. Reliability and validity measures such as the Kappa index, sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and AUC were used to evaluate the accuracy of the single question measure. Socio-demographic group differences in accuracy were compared by age, sex, marital status, education, employment, and financial status.

The prevalence of depression by a single-question measure was much lower than those of CESD and GDS (5.5%, 12.3%, and 12.1%, respectively). The sensitivity of the single-item measure, based on CESD and GDS, was extremely low at 30.6% and 36.1%. In the subgroup analysis, however, there was a marked educational discrepancy in all accuracy measures; in sensitivity, people with a university degree or higher showed about 2.4 times higher sensitivity than those having only a primary school education.

The results show that a single-question depression measure should be used with caution. In addition, the single-question measure could substantially underestimate depression among the risk group of older adults.