Baby-friendly workplace initiatives in child feeding practice as predictors of infant and young child anthropometric indices in public health facilities of Southern Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Baby-friendly workplace is an effective evidence based initiative developed by the World Health Organization to protect and support maternal knowledge, beliefs, and confidence in infant and young child feeding practices. However, studies that show the effect of the baby-friendly workplace initiative on the nutritional status of infant and young children are not available in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the nutritional status among baby friendly initiatives service utlizers and non utlizers children age 6-24 months in public health facilities of Southern Ethiopia. METHODS: We conducted a comparative cross-sectional study from 1 to 30 June 2022 among 220 mothers with children aged 6-24 months. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Data were entered into Epidata Software version 4.2 and then exported to IBM SPSS version 26 software for analysis. Chi-square and Fisher exact test were used to assess the differences between users and non-users of the baby friendly workplace initiative. Logistic regression model was used to determine the association between dependent and independent variables. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval was computed. P-values < 0.05 at a 95% confidence level were considered statistically significant. RESULT: The mean (SD) scores of weight for age (WAZ), height for age (HAZ), and weight for height (WHZ) were - 0.38 (1.34),-0.17(2.62) and-0.35 (1.84) respectively. After adjusting for covariates, children aged 6-24 months who did not use baby friendly workplace initiatives were 2.26 times more likely to have stunting compared to the users of baby friendly workplace initiative (AOR 2.26, 95% CI: 1.05, 4.88). However, both wasting (AOR: 0.42; 95% CI:0.13, 1.37) and underweight (AOR: 1.09; 95% CI: 0.45, 2.60) were not significantly associated with the use of baby friendly workplace initiatives. CONCLUSION: The use of baby friendly work place initiatives was successful in improving nutritional status, specifically chronic malnutrition in children. Strengthening and scaling up the baby friendly work place initiative program has the potential to reduce chronic malnutrition in Ethiopia and other similar settings with high burden of malnutrition areas, by implementing it in public facilities.

Cervical cancer screening utilization and associated factors among female health workers in public health facilities of Hossana town, southern Ethiopia: A mixed method approach.

BACKGROUNDS: Worldwide, a substantial proportion of women have low cervical cancer screening services utilization. There is a paucity of evidence in utilization of cervical cancer screening services among female health workers and inconsistent findings in Ethiopia. This study aimed to assess the utilization of cervical cancer screening services and associated factors among female health workers in public health facilities of Hossana town, Southern Ethiopia. METHODS: Facility-based cross-sectional study design complemented with the qualitative inquiry was conducted among randomly selected 241 study participants in Hossana town from June 1 to July 1, 2021. Logistic regression models were used to determine the association between dependent and independent variables with the assumption of a variable with a p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Qualitative data were transcribed verbatim then translated to English and analyzed using open code version 4.03. RESULTS: Out of the total study participants, 19.6% was screened for cervical cancer. Having a diploma level of education (AOR = 0.48;95%CI:0.24,0.98), having three or more children (AOR = 3.65;95%CI:1.44,9.21), having multiple sexual partners(AOR = 3.89;95%CI: 1.38,11.01), and knowledge of cervical cancer screening (AOR = 2.66;95% CI:1.19,5.95) were statistically significantly associated with cervical cancer screening utilization. In-depth interviews suggested additional barriers for low screening utilization including lack of health educational materials, limitation of service to a specific area, service interruption, provider incompetency, and miss-trust and lack of attention by a trained provider. CONCLUSION: Utilization of cervical cancer screening service among female health workers is low. Having a diploma level of education, having three or more children, a history of multiple sexual partners, and knowledge about cervical cancer were predictors of cervical cancer screening utilization. Contextualized health talks and promotion through training with a special focus on low level of knowledge, had lower educational level, and the availability of cervical cancer screening services are critical.

Pregnant women's intentions to use maternity waiting homes and its associated factors in rural districts of Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: As part of a strategy to reduce maternal and perinatal mortality, Ethiopia's government has made a significant effort to expand the number of Maternity Waiting Homes (MWHs). However, worldwide there is a substantial regional variation in pregnant women's intention to use MWHs. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess pregnant women's intention to use maternity waiting home and its associated factors in the rural district of Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study carried out on 385 pregnant women from March 1-28, 2020. A systematic random sampling technique was used to recruit the study participants. SPSS software (version 24.0) was used to enter and analyze the data. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine an association between each independent and dependent variables. Odds ratio with their 95% confidence intervals was computed to ascertain the existence and strength of an association, and statistical significance was affirmed at a p-value of < 0.05. RESULTS: The prevalence of pregnant women's intension to use MWHs was observed to be 55.6%. A poor wealth status (AOR = 2.52; 95% CI:1.05-6.05), having a previous history of institutional delivery (AOR = 4.78; 95% CI:1.16-9.64), attending four or more antenatal care visits (AOR = 3.34; 95%CI:1.35-8.29), having obstetric complications during previous pregnancy (AOR = 3.76; 95% CI:1.45-9.77), and having favourable attitude towards MWHs (AOR = 13.51; 95% CI: 5.85-9.54) had a significant association with an intention to use MWHs. CONCLUSIONS: According to the findings of this study, more than half of pregnant women have been intended to use MWHs. Therefore, boosting the uptake of the antenatal care visit, raising awareness about the risk and consequences of obstetric complications, and strengthening behavioral modification strategies is very crucial to increase pregnant women's intention to use MWHs.