GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH RESEARCH FOUNDATION
Psychosocial problems are recognized as significant public health problem and highly prevalent among children in both developed and developing countries. These problems among children may lead to restrictions in daily functioning and continue in later stages of life, as well as negatively affect social skills, school performance, and mental development. Unhealthy lifestyle behaviors such as unhealthy diet or longer screen time are shown to be associated with poor mental health or inattention problems among children. Nevertheless, the relationship between unhealthy lifestyles and psychosocial problems have remained unclear. In addition, there is a marked difference in the lifestyle behaviors between developed and developing countries. Therefore, the objective of this study is to compare the association between unhealthy lifestyles and psychosocial problems among Bangladeshi and Japanese children aged 5-9 years.
A total of 400 children aged 5-9 years will be recruited from 4 unions (the lowest administrative boundary) of Chuadanga district of Bangladesh using stratified random sampling technique, whereas, data on 1258 Japanese children will be gathered from the Hamamatsu Birth Cohort for Mother and Children (HBC). Hamamatsu University School of Medicine and Global Public Health Research Foundation are implementing the project in Bangladesh.