Voluntary blood donation practice and its associated factors among civil servants in Bale Robe town, Southeast Ethiopia, 2021.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess voluntary blood donation practice and associated factors among Bale Robe town civil servants in Oromia, Southeast Ethiopia, 2021. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 601 civil servants selected by a stratified systematic random sampling technique. Data were collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was pre-tested on 5% of the total sample size before actual data collection. Data were coded and entered into EpiData version 3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 25. Frequency distribution, descriptive statistics, and diagrams were used to summarize and present data. Binary logistic regression was performed to assess the association between independent variables and voluntary blood donation practice. An adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with its 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated to identify factors associated with the outcome variables. And p-value < 0.05 was used to declare significance. Result: Of the total of 630 selected civil servants, 601 give a complete response to the questionnaire yielding a response rate of 95%. The mean age of participants was 34.19 years, and 328 (54.6%) of them were rural residents before they joined the governmental work. The lifetime voluntary blood donation practice among civil servants was 27%; 95% confidence interval = (23%-31%). The major reason for not donating blood was fear related to blood donation 186 (42.4%). From multivariable logistic regression, four variables were found as significant independent variables associated with voluntary blood donation practice. Accordingly, having a family member or relative who previously donate blood (adjusted odds ratio = 2.48; 95% confidence interval = (1.39, 4.39)), previous participation in a blood donation campaign (adjusted odds ratio = 5.84; 95% confidence interval = (3.39, 1.04)), and willingness to donate blood (adjusted odds ratio = 5.04; 95% confidence interval = (2.21, 11.48)) were variables significantly and positively associated with voluntary blood donation practice, respectively. Civil servants who had no opportunity to donate blood previously were less likely to give voluntary blood donation (adjusted odds ratio = 0.15 (95% confidence interval = 0.063, 0.367)). Conclusion: The study identified a low level of voluntary blood donation. Having family members/relatives who donate blood, previous participation in a blood donation campaign, and willingness to donate blood were significantly associated with voluntary blood donation. Therefore, there should be regularly scheduled campaigns encouraging civil servants' voluntary blood donation.

Risk perception, community myth, and practices towards COVID-19 pandemic in Southeast Ethiopia: Community based crossectional study.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess risk perception, community myths, and preventive practice towards COVID-19 among community in Southeast Ethiopia, 2020. METHODS: Community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 854 participants selected using a multistage sampling technique. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire adapted from previous literature. Descriptive statistics were done to summarize the variables. A generalized linear model with binary logistic specification was used to identify factors associated with risk perception and practice. Accordingly adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals were calculated and those with p-value < 0.05 were considered as significant factors associated with risk perception and practice. Cluster analysis using a linear mixed model was performed to identify factors associated with community myth and those with p-value <0.05 were reported as significant factors associated with community myth. RESULTS: All 854 respondents gave their answer yielding 100% response rate. Of these 547 (64.1%) were male, 611 (71.5%) were rural residents, 534 (62.5%) got information about COVID-19 from TV/radio, 591 (69.2%) of them live near health facility, 265 (30.8%) have a history of substance use and 100 (11.7%) have a history of chronic illness, and 415 (48.6%) of them have a high-risk perception, 428 (50.1%) have a wrong myth about COVID-19 and 366 (42.9%) have poor practice respectively. Residence, distances from health facility and myths were significantly associated with risk perception. Occupation, knowledge, and practice were significantly associated with community myths. Also level of education, living near health facilities, having good knowledge and wrong myth were significantly associated with the practice of utilizing COVID-19 preventive respectively. CONCLUSION: The study found high-risk perception, high wrong community myth, and relatively low utilization of available practices towards COVID-19 and factors associated with them.

Effect of maternal near miss on neonatal mortality in selected hospitals: Prospective cohort study, Southeast Ethiopia.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess effect of maternal near miss on neonatal mortality. METHODS: Prospective cohort study was conducted on 384 pregnant women who came for delivery to purposely selected hospitals. The cohort was made up of 128 exposed (near miss) mothers and 256 non-exposed (non-near-miss) mothers. Women who came for delivery were only included. Those who came for services other than delivery such as abortion care, women who developed life-threatening condition not related to delivery, and those who come from no phone network area were excluded. A purposive sampling technique was used by including all mothers with near miss consecutively until the required sample size was obtained. Two non-near-miss mothers were selected using lottery for every near-miss mother. Survival analysis was done for both groups using Cox regression to look for effect of maternal near miss on neonatal mortality. Verbal informed consent from study participants was obtained. RESULTS: A total of 354 (118 with near miss and 236 without near miss) women completed the follow-up time, yielding response rate of 92.2%. Of all, 55 (15.5%) of them have previous history of abortion, 44 (12.4%) were admitted to the intensive care unit during delivery, and 22 (6.2%) have history of past delivery of still birth. Severe preeclampsia with intensive care unit admission and severe anemia with transfusion of greater than 2 units of blood were common complications leading to maternal near miss. There were 17 (48 per 1000 live birth) neonatal death at the end of the study, of which 15 occurred among mothers with near miss. Monthly income (adjusted hazard ratio = 998, 95% confidence interval = 0.996-0.999), fetal presentation (adjusted hazard ratio = 6.48, 95% confidence interval = 1.84-22.73), APGAR score (adjusted hazard ratio = 0.746, 95% confidence interval = 0.620-0.898), and being near miss mother (adjusted hazard ratio = 8.40, 95% confidence interval = 1.638-43.118) were significantly affecting neonatal mortality. CONCLUSION: Maternal near miss and other fetal and general maternal characteristics have effect on occurrence of neonatal mortality. Therefore, due attention should be given to these factors for improvement of neonatal survival.

COVID-19-Related Anxiety and the Coping Strategies in the Southeast Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: The pandemic of coronavirus disease spreading is impacting mental health globally. Even though the pandemic is challenging for patients, the community, policymakers, as well as health organizations, and teams, the data on COVID-19 and its association with anxiety and coping mechanisms towards infection among community members are currently limited. Thus, the study is intended to assess COVID-19-related levels of anxiety and coping strategies among community members of Bale and East Bale Zones, Southeast Ethiopia. METHODS: A community-based survey was carried out among 634 study participants of Bale and East Bale Zones from June 1 to 20, 2020. The level of anxiety was determined by using the 5-item Coronavirus Scale and the coping strategies were determined by using the 15-item Coping and Adaptation Processing Scale. Interviewer-administered questionnaires were used to collect the data. Bi-variable analysis and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to estimate the relationship among the variables. RESULTS: COVID-19-related dysfunctional level of anxiety was found 95 (16.58%). About 290 (50.6%) respondents were copied from anxiety that occurred as a result of COVID-19. Factors significantly associated with the dysfunctional level of anxiety related to COVID-19 were being an urban resident (AOR = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.23, 0.86), those who had no information from TV/radio (AOR=1.76, 95% CI: 1.09, 2.84), and walking a long distance more than 1 hour from the health institution (AOR=0.58, 95% CI: 0.34, 0.97). CONCLUSION: COVID-19-related dysfunctional levels of anxiety were 16.58% in the study community. Half of the community was coped with COVID-19-related anxiety. Being an urban resident and walking along distances more than 1 hour from the health facility were the factors that decreased the odds of having a dysfunctional anxiety, whereas respondents who had no information from TV/radio increased the odds of having a dysfunctional anxiety. Accordingly, focusing on these identified factors could improve a dysfunctional level of anxiety in the study community.