Nutritional assessment and associated factors in children with congenital heart disease-Ethiopia.

INTRODUCTION: Worldwide, congenital heart disease is the principal heart disease in children and constitutes one of the major causes of infant mortality, particularly in developing countries. Infants and children with congenital heart disease exhibit a range of delays in weight gain and growth. In some instances, the delay can be relatively mild, whereas in other cases, cause the failure to thrive. OBJECTIVES: To determine the nutritional status and associated factors of pediatric patients with congenital heart disease. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A cross sectional analytical study conducted over a period of 6 months (Feb to Jul 2020). A total of 228 subjects with congenital heart disease who visited the cardiac center during the study period where included until the calculated sample size attained. Data is collected from patient's card and their care giver. Data was then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for windows version 25.0. Odds Ratio with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) was used to determine the effect of the independent variables on the outcome variable and P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 228 children ranging from 3month to 17yrs of age with mean age of 4.7 years (SD = 3.8 years) were included in the study. Most of the subjects had acyanotic heart disease accounting for 87.7%. The overall prevalence of wasting, underweight and stunting were 41.3%, 49.1% and 43% respectively. Children with congenital heart disease and having pulmonary hypertension, were found more likely to develop wasting compared to those without pulmonary hypertension with an odds of 1.9 (95% CI: 1.0-3.4) and also have greater chance of stunting with an odds of 1.9 (95% CI: 1.0-3.4). Children 5 to 10 years of age were 2.3 times more likely to be underweight. CONCLUSION: Malnutrition is a major problem in pediatric patients with congenital heart disease. Pulmonary hypertension and older age are associated with increased risk of undernutrition.

Insecticide-Treated Nets Utilization and Associated Factors Among Pregnant Women in Miesso Woreda, Eastern Ethiopia: Observational Study.

Background: Even though most sub-Saharan Africa adopted the World Health organization guidelines for malaria prevention, the coverage of insecticide-treated nets by pregnant women is low, where 28 million pregnant women did not receive insecticide-treated nets services. Likewise, only 13-51.4% of pregnant women utilize insecticide-treated nets in Ethiopia. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Miesso woreda from April 01 to 30, 2017, among 424 pregnant women. A multi-stage cluster sampling technique was used to select the study participants. A structured interviewer-based administered questionnaire and observational checklist were used to collect the data. The collected data were entered into Epi data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 23 for analysis. Multiple logistic regression models were fitted to identify factors associated with insecticide-treated nets utilization. Adjusted odds ratios along 95% CI were estimated to measure the strength of the association and declared statistical significance at a p-value < 0.05. Results: Of a total respondents, 39.9% (95% CI: 34.9-44.2%) utilize insecticide-treated nets. Pregnant women from rural (AOR = 2.05, 95% CI: 1.14, 3.38), employed women (AOR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.13, 2.86), monthly income >1050 Ethiopian total birr (AOR = 2.02, 95% CI: 1.06, 3.84), third trimester pregnancy (AOR = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.09, 4.40), and having antenatal care for current pregnancy (AOR = 3.86, 95% CI: 1.63, 9.10) were factors significantly associated with insecticide-treated nets. Conclusion: The utilization of insecticide-treated nets is relatively low. Residence, occupational status, monthly income, stage of pregnancy, and antenatal care status were factors significantly associated with insecticide-treated net utilization among pregnant women.

Risk Factors Associated with Under-Five Stunting, Wasting, and Underweight Based on Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey Datasets in Tigray Region, Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Stunting, wasting, and underweight among children are major problems in most regions of Ethiopia, including the Tigray region. The main objective of this study was to assess the risk factors associated with stunting, wasting, and underweight of children in the Tigray region. METHODS: The information collected from 1077 children born 5 years before the survey was considered in the analysis. Multivariable binary logistic regression analysis was fitted to identify significant risk factors associated with stunting, wasting, and underweight. RESULTS: Male children and rural born were having a higher burden of both severe and moderate stunting, wasting, and underweight than females and urban born. Among male children, 27.6%, 4.10%, and 14.2% of them were stunted, wasted, and underweight, respectively. Protected drinking water (odds ratio (OR) = 0.68; 95% confidence interval (CI): (0.50, 0.92)) was associated with stunting. Maternal age at birth less than 20 years (OR = 0.66; 95% CI: (0.45, 0.97)) and being male (OR = 2.04; 95% CI: (1.13, 3.68)) were associated with high risk of underweight. No antenatal care follow-up (OR = 2.20; 95% CI: (1.04, 4.64)) was associated with wasting, while the poor wealth index, diarrhea, low weight at birth (<2.5 kg), lower age of a child, and 3 or more under-five children in a household were significantly associated with stunting, wasting, and underweight. CONCLUSIONS: Being born in rural, being male, unprotected drinking water, smaller weight at birth, no antenatal follow-ups, diarrhea, and poor household wealth were factors associated with increased stunting, wasting, and underweight. Thus, interventions that focus on utilization of antenatal care services, improving household wealth, and improving access to protected drinking water were required by policymakers to decrease stunting, wasting, and underweight more rapidly.