Severe Acute Malnutrition among Children in Bale Zone Southeast Ethiopia: Treatment Outcome and its Determinant Factors.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the treatment outcomes of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and its associated factors in children aged 6-59 months in Bale zone, Southeast Ethiopia. DESIGN: A multi-institutionally-based, retrospective cross-sectional study design was conducted, based on records from September 11, 2014 to September 11, 2017. Simple random sampling was used to select the records. A pretested extraction format was used to collect information from the logbook and patient records. Treatment outcome was dichotomized into recovery and censored. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to analyze the data. Odds ratios with 95% CIs were calculated to determine the association between each independent variable and treatment outcome. RESULTS: A total of 763 records were completed and reviewed. Of these, 711 (93.2%) were recovered from SAM. Provision of deworming treatment (aOR = 6.5; 95% CI: 2.8-15.1), education given to the mother/caregiver (aOR = 8.8; 95% CI: 4.2-18.4), age range 6-24 months (aOR = 0.37; 95% CI: 0.17-0.81), presence of anemia (aOR = 0.33; 95% CI: 0.14-0.78), and use of nasogastric (NG) tube (aOR = 0.42; 95% CI: (0.21-0.85) were associated with recovery from SAM. CONCLUSIONS: Recovery rate of SAM children in this study was in line with international standards. Deworming, maternal education status, child's age, anemia, and NG tube use were associated with recovery. Attention should be given to deworming all children, disease control, and prevention of anemia and other comorbidities.

Contributing factors of delay in seeking treatment for childhood diarrheal diseases in Berbere Woreda, Ethiopia: an unmatched case-control study.

BACKGROUND: A major cause of diarrheal illness mortality is a failure to seek immediate medical assistance. There is currently no evidence on the reasons that induce caregivers in Berbere Woreda to delayed seeking timely treatment for under-five children with diarrheal illnesses. As a result, the goal of this study was to identify determinants of delay in seeking timely treatment for childhood diarrheal diseases in Berbere Woreda, Bale Zone Oromia Region, South Eastern Ethiopia. METHODS: An unmatched case-control study on 418 child caregivers was conducted from April to May 2021. Cases were 209 children and their caregivers who sought treatment after 24 h of the onset of diarrheal disease symptoms, and controls were 209 children and their mothers/caregivers who sought treatment within 24 h of the onset of diarrheal disease symptoms. Data were collected through interviews and chart reviews using consecutive sampling. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was carried out, with variables with a P-value of 0.05 considered statistically significant. The Hosmer-Lemshow goodness of fit test was used to validate the model, and the variance inflation factor (VIF) was used to test for multi-collinearity. RESULTS: In this study, we found that among 418 participants, determinants of delay in seeking timely treatment for childhood diarrheal diseases included mothers with more than two under-five children (AOR = 2.23, 95% CI 1.21-4.11), Divorce (AOR = 2.62, 95% CI 1.087-2.76), age of children < 24 months (AOR = 1.597, 95%,CI (1.008-2.531), and preference for a government health facility for treatment (AOR = 2.56, 95% CI 1.51-4.34). Besides, the odds of mothers aged 25-34 years being two times more likely to delay seeking timely treatment for 5 children with diarrhea were 1.537 (0.560-4.213). CONCLUSIONS: Age of children, age of mothers, number of children, preference of health facilities, and marital status were factors influencing the failure to seek treatment within 24 h of recognizing diarrhea in children under the age of five.

Perceived risk of COVID-19 pandemic on crop production: an implication for food security in Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Risk perception is a subjective psychological construct that is influenced by cognitive, emotional, social, cultural, and individual differences, both within and between individuals and across countries. Although the impact of COVID-19 on short- and long-term food security is difficult to predict, some risk factors and lessons from previous pandemics can be identified. The goal of this study is to assess rural farmers' perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on crop production and its implications for food security in West Arsi Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 634 small-holder farmers in the west Arsi zone district. From November 1-30, 2020, data was gathered through interviews with local farmers. Data was gathered using a semi-structured questionnaire. Six trained expert agricultural workers were used as data collectors and supervisors, respectively, and both were trained. The questionnaire had been pre-tested. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 25 was used to analyze the data. To identify factors associated with risk perception of the COVID-19 pandemic on crop production, binary and multivariable logistic regression were used, with statistical significance determined at a p-value of 0.05. RESULTS: This study found that among farmers in West Arsi Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia, about 32.5% reported having perceived risk of COVID-19 pandemic on crop production, and that age greater than or equal to 57, female sex (AOR,1.48 95% CI (1.03-2.12)), primary Educational status (AOR,2.85(1.78-4.58)), and permanent employed occupation of the house head (AOR, 2.27(1.24-4.17) were found to be independent predictors of perceived risk of COVID-19 pandemic on crop production among farmers in West Arsi Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia. CONCLUSION: Perceived risk of COVID-19 on crop production was high and varied across age groups, sexes, educational attainment levels, and the occupation of the head of the household.

The Mini Nutritional Assessment tool's applicability for the elderly in Ethiopia: validation study.

Background: The Mini Nutrition Assessment (MNA) is a widely used and valid tool for screening and assessment of malnutrition among the elderly population worldwide. However, MNA has not been validated among the Ethiopian elderly population and this study assessed the validity of the tool for the target population. Methods: Cross-sectional validation study design employed to validate MNA in Meki town, East Ethiopia. This study included 176 randomly selected elders living in the community, whereas amputated, bedridden, visible deformity, known liver and/or renal disorders were excluded. The original MNA questionnaires were translated to local language and administered to each participant after doing the pretest. The anthropometric, self-perception of nutritional status and serum albumin concentrations were measured. Reliability, validity, sensitivity, specificity, Positive Predictive Value (PPV), and Negative Predictive Value (NPV) were calculated. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was plotted to identify the area under the curve (AUC) and optimal cut-off value for the prediction of malnutrition. Result: A total of one hundred and seventy-six elders participated in this study. Of the total participants, 78(44.3%) were males. The mean (SD) age of the participants was 67.6 (±5.8) years and ranged from 60 to 84 years. The prevalence of malnutrition based on the MNA criteria (MNA < 17 points) was 18.2%, and 13.1% based on serum albumin concentration (<3 g/dl).The MNA had an overall Internal consistency of Cronbach's alpha 0.61. The tool also demonstrated significant criterion-related validity (0.75, p < 0.001) and concurrent validity (0.51, p < 0.001) with serum albumin concentration and self-perception of nutritional status respectively. Using the original cut-off point, the sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV of the tool were 93.5%, 44.6%, 65.4% and 86.0%, respectively. By modifying, the cut-off point to a value of <20.5, the sensitivity and specificity of the tool increases to 97.6% and 82.8% respectively. The AUC (95%CI) showed an overall accuracy of 92.7% (88.5, 96.9). Conclusion: The MNA tool can be used as a valid malnutrition screening tool for the Ethiopian elderly population by modifying the original cut-off point.