Prevalence of neonatal near miss in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Neonatal near miss (NNM) applies to cases where newborns almost died during the first 28 d of life but survived life-threatening conditions following birth. The most vulnerable time for infant survival is the neonatal stage, corresponding to almost 50% of deaths occurring at <5 y of age. No study indicates the overall pooled prevalence of NNM in Africa. Thus this review aimed to estimate the overall pooled prevalence of NNMs in Africa. METHODS: Articles were retrieved through a comprehensive search strategy using PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative, Cochrane Library and Google Search. Data extraction was done independently by all authors. Forest plots and tables were used to represent the original data. The statistical heterogeneity was evaluated using I2 statistics. There was heterogeneity between the included articles. Therefore the authors used a meta-analysis of random effects to estimate the aggregate pooled prevalence of NNM in Africa. Funnel plot and Egger regression test methods were used to assess possible publication bias. R software version 3.5.3 and R studio version 1.2.5003 were used to analyse the data. The guideline of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses was used to publish this article. The review was registered on the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (registration ID: CRD42021290223). RESULTS: Through an exhaustive search, we found 835 articles. However, we considered only eight full-text articles to be included in this meta-analysis. The analysis of included studies showed that the overall pooled prevalence of NNM in Africa was 30% (95% confidence interval [CI] 16 to 44). The subgroup analysis by study year showed that the prevalence of NNM from 2012-2015 and 2018-2019 was 36% (95% CI 23 to 49) and 20% (95% CI 1 to 39), respectively. CONCLUSION: This finding suggests that the pooled prevalence of NNM is high in Africa as compared with other studies. Therefore the government and other stakeholders working on maternal and child health should assist in the design of interventions and strategies for improving the quality of neonatal care.

Correlates of cervical cancer screening uptake among female under graduate students of Aksum University, College of Health Sciences, Tigray, Ethiopia.

OBJECTIVES: Cervical cancer is among the leading cancer related causes of morbidity and mortality of women in the world. Ethiopia is among the highest risk countries with age adjusted incidence of cervical cancer 35.9 per 100,000 women or 7619 new cases and 6081 deaths of cervical cancer each year. The aim of this study was to examine correlates of cervical cancer screening uptake among female under graduate students of Aksum University, College of Health Sciences. Data was collected using self-administered structured questionnaire. Variables that were statistically significantly associated with the outcome in bivariate analyses were considered in a logistic multivariate regression analysis. RESULT: Only 17.2% of students were screened for cervical cancer in their lifetime. Both in bivariate and multivariate analysis, sexual experience (AOR = 38.85; 95% CI [8.907, 169.51]), marital status (AOR = 3.481; 95% CI [1.167, 10.380]), Ppace of birth (AOR = 3.359; 95% CI [1.559, 7.235]), and student's year of study (AOR = 0.005; 95% CI [0.001, 0.031]) were the only correlates of cervical cancer screening uptake among female students. Therefore, the overall cervical cancer screening uptake was low and further study should be done other correlates.