Community food beliefs during pregnancy in rural kebeles of Ofla Woreda, Northern Ethiopia: an explorative qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Dietary related misconceptions during pregnancy affect the heath of mothers and their growing babies. Misconceptions vary from place to place and from community to community. Understanding of a given community's food perceptions during pregnancy helps policy makers able to design cultural appropriate interventions. In Ethiopia, however, evidences on food beliefs and perceptions during pregnancy are limited. Therefore, this study is aimed at qualitatively assessing community food beliefs during pregnancy in rural kebeles of Ofla Woreda, Northern Ethiopia. METHODS: We conducted 10 in-depth interviews (n = 10) and four focus group discussions (n = 32) among purposively selected community groups including pregnant mothers, religious leaders, and elders in rural kebeles of Ofla Woreda, Northern Ethiopia. Data were transcribed word-for-word, translated into English, and uploaded into ATLAST ti version 7.5.1.6. Data were analyzed following the principles of thematic analysis. Line-by-line coding was applied to identify codes; identified codes were categorized based on their similarities and differences and themes were developed inductively. RESULTS: Three main themes were identified inductively; foods positively and negatively linked with pregnancy; perceived benefits and harms of alcoholic drinks during pregnancy; and religion and fasting. In this study, consumptions of animal source foods such as egg were discouraged because such foods were perceived to increase the risk of having big baby that could delay delivery. However, intakes of locally produced alcoholic drinks during pregnancy were encouraged by the local community. Furthermore, avoidance of animal source foods and meal skipping during religious fasting-periods were also common practices among pregnant mothers in the study area. CONCLUSIONS: This study explored misconceptions on food intakes during pregnancy. Positive attitude towards intake of "soft" alcoholic drinks might result in alcohol related teratogenic effects. Restriction on the intakes of nutrient rich diets due to religious fasting and other misconceptions would lead to insufficient nutrient intake both to the mothers and their growing fetus. Culturally appropriate intervention to improve awareness on healthy dietary intake during pregnancy is needed.

Delayed health care seeking is high among patients presenting with sexually transmitted infections in HIV hotspot areas, Gambella town, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Delayed health care seeking is one of the major impediments to successfully prevent and control sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV. Gambella is one of the HIV hot spot areas and the most HIV prevalent region in the country. Considering the empirical knowledge of the link between STIs and HIV, gathering information on health-seeking behavior and the associated factors among STI patients is helpful to design interventions that enhance early seeking and treatment adherence. METHODOLOGY: A facility-based cross-sectional study was employed to collect data from 424 STI patients from February 15 to April 15, 2017, using a face-to-face interview. A consecutive sampling method was used until the allocated sample for each facility was fulfilled. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with health-seeking behavior. RESULTS: The proportion of delayed health care seeking among patients treated for STIs was 56.8%. Knowledge, number of sexual partners, and perception variables were found significantly associated with early seeking behavior in multivariate logistic regression: patients who had better knowledge of STIs (AOR =1.74, 95% CI =1.10, 2.73), had single sexual partner (AOR =1.83, 95% CI =1.19, 2.78), those who perceived stigma for STIs (AOR =0.52, 95% CI =0.34, 0.79), and perceived severity of STIs (AOR =1.97, 95% CI =1.18, 3.29). CONCLUSION: This study reported a high proportion of delayed health care seeking. This may challenge the prevention and control effort and alarms the potential threat to the spread of STI/HIV in the region. Provision of intensive health education is crucial to improve awareness and to avoid risk behaviors and negative perceptions.