More than half of the youths and adolescents reported that their knowledge to protect themselves from COVID-19 was high or very high while female respondents rated their knowledge slightly higher than males.
An online rapid survey undertaken on the 675 youths and adolescents aged from 10 to 24 in 8 divisions of the country revealed that the top three measured taken them to prevent infection from COVID 19 were washing hands with soap for at least 20 seconds, wearing a face mask and covering mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.
“Meeting the Undernutrition Challenge (MUCH) Project”, implemented by the Food and Agriculture Organization Bangladesh with the sponsorship of European Union and USAID conducted a rapid survey of youth on COVID-19 related nutrition awareness, behaviour and food security in Bangladesh in May 2020. The findings of the survey was disseminated at a webinar today (Monday) jointly organized by the Press Institute Bangladesh and Food and Agriculture Organization.
While talking about the objective of undertaking the survey was to understand the nutrition impacts on the lives of youth and adolescent in Covid 19 situation, said Bhami Vora, nutrition specialist of MUCH project while sharing the findings of the survey with the journalists.
While disseminating the finding of the survey Bhami Vora, nutrition specialist and Pragyan Behera, Planning and Coordination Specialist of MUCH project mentioned that 72.6 percent of the respondents claimed decreased family income compared to the previous months of the COVID-19 crisis. The most affected families were those earning annual income less than Taka one lakh.
When respondents were asked if they undertook any indoor or outdoor exercise for staying healthy and fit while being at home, 65.2 percent of adolescents and youth reported that they undertook some exercise. The top two exercise were running (38%) and stretching, a little more than a quarter of them practised yoga and 37 per cent of them followed online exercise.
Overall, 45 per cent of respondent reported sleeping for recommended 7 to 9 hours daily. The remaining 55 slept less than the recommended 7 hours a day, the survey findings revealed.
Close to 50 percent respondents mentioned eating somewhat less in the lockdown period compared to the pre-lockdown while 73 per cent of them mentioned they did not buy any meals from outside during the lockdown.
The survey also revealed that 36.4 percent families were moderately/severely affected by food insecurity during the COVID-19, higher that the national average of 31.5 percent for adults in the pre-Covid 19 situation.
Md. Elius Bhuiyan, Director (Administration) of PIB, Naoki Minamiguchi, Chief Technical Advisor of MUCH project, and Mostafa Faruq Al Banna, Associate Research Director of the Ministry of Food delivered speech at the webinar with Zafar Wazed, Director General of PIB, in the chair.
A total of 33 journalists who cover and agriculture beat for their respective media took part in the webinar.