RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Maternal malnutrition remains a major public health problem, particularly in low and middle-income countries and war-affected areas like Ethiopia. Malnourished pregnant and lactating women with low nutrient stores have babies with poor mental and physical development, increasing the risk of poor birth outcomes. Despite the fact that the majority of Ethiopian mothers are malnourished, there is little evidence in war-affected areas. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of undernutrition and associated factors among pregnant and lactating mothers in the war affected area of North Gondar Zone, northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from April 10 to May 25, 2022. A multistage random sampling technique was used to select 1560 pregnant and lactating mothers. MUAC was to ascertain the outcome variable. Data was entered and analyzed by using EPI INFO version 3.5.3 and SPSS version 24, respectively. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was employed to identify the factors associated with acute malnutrition. An adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval was used to show the strength of the association, while a P-value of 0.05 was used to declare the significance of the association. RESULTS: The prevalence of acute malnutrition among pregnant and lactating women was 34.3% at the 95% CI (31.9-36.8). The age of the mothers (AOR = 0.73; 95% CI: 0.54, 0.99), family size 6-8 (AOR = 1.21; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.82), and greater than or equal to 9 family sizes (AOR = 0.44; 95% CI: 0.19, 0.97), were significantly associated with acute malnutrition. CONCLUSIONS: In the current study, the prevalence of acute malnutrition among pregnant and lactating mothers is high in the study area. Mother's age and family size were factors associated with acute malnutrition in war-affected areas. As a result, mothers with large families will require special assistance to reduce the impact of malnutrition.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Despite the expansion of the physiotherapy program over the past decade in Ethiopia, there is modest knowledge of the extent of physiotherapy students' satisfaction. This study was conducted at the Department of physiotherapy, University of Gondar in Ethiopia. PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to assess the satisfaction of students with the teaching and learning process and to identify the factors influencing course satisfaction amongst physiotherapy students. This questionnaire survey investigated the effects of demographic variables, perceptions of satisfaction, and education-related parameters on the level of student satisfaction with their educational experience. METHODS: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted by recruiting entry-level physiotherapy students during 2018. Data were collected from a sample of 173 physiotherapy students using structured and validated self-administered Students Satisfaction Questionnaires. Logistic regression model was used to identify factors significantly associated with student satisfaction in the teaching and learning process. RESULTS: Out of 173 participants, most of them 112 (64.7%) were male and the majority of them (37%) were third-year students. The overall student satisfaction was 33.1% for all categories. Awareness about physiotherapy education before enrolling into the physiotherapy educational program (AOR 6.3, 95% CI: 2.2-17.8), year of study (AOR 0.12, 95% CI: 0.02-0.67) and availability of classroom furniture (AOR 0.05, 95% CI: 0.04-0.66) were statistically significant associated factors for student satisfaction. CONCLUSION: The overall student's satisfaction on the learning and teaching process was low, in particular, the satisfaction for the clinical training is also below par, which is a major concern. Area of intervention and endorsements identified by this study was information about physiotherapy before joining the university, course duration, and availability of the classroom furniture. The efforts to raise physiotherapy student satisfaction in Ethiopia shall focus on creating awareness of the physiotherapy education program at the pre-college level and improving classroom facilities in the first place.