People living in eastern hill region, northern char areas and southern coastal belt of Bangladesh suffer the most from food shortages, a study has found.

Food insecurity is the highest in the eastern hills where half the population do not get enough to eat, followed by char and coastal areas.

The findings were presented at a roundtable in the capital Tuesday, said a press release.

Helen Keller International (HKI) and Brae University's school of public health conducted the study in association with the European Union and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS).

According to the report, the prevalence of inadequate dietary diversity is 47 percent in the northern chars, 43 percent in the coastal areas and 42 percent in the northwest, which may affect the health of women and children in those regions.

The study of Food Security Nutritional Surveillance Project (FSNSP) was carried out between February and April on 9,024 households, including 4,600 under-5 children and 9,158 women and adolescent girls, aged between 10 and 49, along the country's coastal belt, northern and northwest chars (shoals), eastern hills and haor areas.

Erica Roy Khetran, country director of HKI-Bangladesh; Nasreen Khan, deputy programme manager, NNS, Institute of Public Health Nutrition; Golam Mostafa Kamal, director general of BBS; and Sadia Chowdhury, executive director of the Brae Institute of Global Health; were present on the occasion.