Risky sexual practice and associated factors among street children of Wonago town, Gedeo zone, Southern Ethiopia.

Introduction: A "risky sexual practice" is any sexual act that might put an individual's social, physical, and psychological health at risk and increase the likelihood of adverse sexual and reproductive health consequences. Street children have risky sexual practices, which place them at all kinds of health risks. Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess risky sexual practices and associated factors among street children in Wonago Town, southern Ethiopia. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study design was employed. About 214 street children, aged 10-18, residing in Wonago Town from September 1-30, 2021, participated in the study. Data was gathered from all of the street children in Wonago town. A pre-tested and structured interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Epi data software was used to enter the collected data, which was then exported to SPSS for analysis. A logistic regression model was applied to identify the associated factors. A p value <0.05 was used to declare the significant variables. Results: A total of 214 street children were involved in the study. Overall, the magnitude of risky sexual practices was 43.46 percent (95% CI: 38.3-48.62). About 52.7% of participants had ever had sexual intercourse in the last year, and of them, around 43.5% had more than one sexual partner. Among sexually active street children, 40.9% never used a condom during sexual intercourse. Age (Adjusted Odd Ratio (AOR): 1.42, 95%CI: 1.03-2.37), educational status (AOR: 5.73, 95%CI: 1.49-10.51), substance use (AOR: 1.24, 95%CI: 1.03-2.07), duration on the street (AOR: 2.14, 95%CI: 1.03-4.12), and daily income (AOR: 0.68, 95%CI: 0.32-0.98) were found to be significantly associated with risky sexual practices. Conclusion: Risky sexual practices among street children were more prevalent in Wonago Town, Southern Ethiopia. Children's age, educational status, daily income, duration on the street, and status of substance use were the factors that contributed to risky sexual practices. As a result, conducting information and education campaigns, developing income-generating activities for children, increasing children's school enrollment and attendance, improving access to sexual and reproductive health services, and providing capacity-building training for health care providers may all help to reduce risky sexual practices.

Food taboos and associated factors among agro-pastoralist pregnant women: A community-based cross-sectional study in Eastern Ethiopia.

In underdeveloped nations, cultural norms that are harmful to women's health, such as food taboos, are responsible for five to fifteen percent of pregnancy-related deaths. Food Taboo traditions prevent women from consuming particular foods, which reduces dietary diversity and food quality and may have detrimental nutritional effects. However, little is known about Ethiopia's dietary taboos and related issues. So, the purpose of this study was to find out how common food taboos are among pregnant women in agro pastoralist settings, as well as the accompanying factors. 636 pregnant women were enrolled in a community-based cross-sectional study using a two-stage cluster sampling strategy, distributed over seven clusters. Data were exported from Epi Data version 3.01 to Statistical Package for Social Science version 20 after being entered. The prevalence of dietary taboos in this study was 67.4% (95% CI: 63.7%, 71.1%). Food taboos were independently and significantly predicted by lack of formal education [AOR = 1.97 (95% CI: 1.583, 4.496), low wealth index [AOR = 2.26 (95% CI: 1.173, 4.353)], absence of antenatal care visits [AOR = 6.16 (95% CI: 4.996, 10.128), lack of knowledge of maternal nutrition [AOR = 4.94 (95% CI: 3.799, 8.748)], and negative attitude toward maternal nutrition [ In the research area, dietary taboos were very common. Food taboos were independently predicted by low wealth index, lack of maternity care visits, lack of formal education, ignorance of maternal nutrition, and unfavorable attitudes. Therefore, it is highly advised that strong community-based maternal nutrition education and counseling, raising women's income, and preparing young women for study in order to improve their educational standing be implemented.

Predictors of Hand-Washing Practices at Critical Times Among Mothers of Under-5 Years Old Children in Rural Setting of Gedeo Zone, Southern Ethiopia.

Background: Various communicable and infectious diseases could be contained by proper hand washing leading to a reduction in mortality and morbidity of children. Objective: To assess predictors of hand-washing practices at critical times among mothers of under 5 years old children in rural setting of Gedeo zone, Southern Ethiopia. Method: An institutional-based cross-sectional survey was conducted among 422 women with children under the age of 5 attended the Dilla Zuria health facility and were chosen using a systematic sampling method. Data was gathered using pre-tested interview-administered structured questionnaires. Data was entered into EPI info version 17 and analyzed using SPSS version 25. Binary logistic regression was employed to identify the association between dependent and independent variables. Finally, for variables with a P < .05 in multivariable analysis, adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was determined and interpreted. Results: The hand washing practice of mothers at critical times was 44.9% [95% CI: 40.1, 49.7%]. The pertinent predictors were favorable attitude [AOR = 7.77, 95% CI: 4.56, 10.37], availability of water source near the household [AOR = 5.31, 95% CI: 3.56, 10.37], and constant availability of soaps at household [AOR = 2.32, 95% CI: 1.33, 6.70]. Conclusion: In our study, hand-washing practices at critical times was low. The pertinent predictors were attitude, the presence of a water source near the household, and the presence of soap. Therefore, it is advised to encourage domestic hygiene education to improve mothers' attitudes and to increase the availability of water and soap close to the household to promote handwashing with soap and water at critical times.

Healthcare Workers' Compliance With Standard Precautions and Associated Factors in Bahir Dar Town, Ethiopia.

Background: According to the literature analysis, the majority of the studies focused primarily on public health institutions. Although assessing the compliance of healthcare workers in private and public institutions would give comprehensive evidence on existing problems and appropriate prevention method, as a result, research on adherence to standard precautions are still required. Rely on existing research, to the best of the investigator's knowledge, compliance with standard precautions in hospitals of Bahir Dar town has not been assessed. Therefore, this study will contribute to narrowing these gaps and determining the scope of problems with standard precautions. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 442 healthcare workers working in hospitals from June 10 to 30, 2021. A stratified random sampling technique was employed to select the study participants. Pre-tested and structured questionnaires and an observational checklist were used to collect the required data. The data were entered into EpiData and analyzed using SPSS version 22. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were used to assess the association between independent and outcome variables. Odd ratios at 95% CI were used to measure the strength of the association between the outcome and explanatory variables. Finally, a P-value of <.05 was considered as a cut-off point for statistical significance. Results: Of the 442 healthcare workers who participated in the study, 41% were compliant with standard precautions. Furthermore, 68.1% and 51.8% of the respondents had good knowledge and a positive attitude toward infection prevention, respectively. Consistent water supply availability (AOR = 1.92 and 95% CI = 1.63, 6.27), and access to infection prevention guidelines (AOR = 1.73 and 95% CI = 1.08, 2.77), and availability of personal protective equipment (AOR = 2.32 and 95% CI = 1.35, 3.98) were some of the factors significantly associated with health care workers' compliance. Conclusions: The current study found that only about two-fifths of the healthcare workers complied with standard precautions. The study suggests that there is a significant risk of developing an infection. Therefore, the concerned organizations; Bahir Dar Zonal Health Office, and respective sectors including Amhara Regional Health Office and the Federal Ministry of Health must take appropriate measures to improve the implementation of safety practices.

Level of Mothers'/Caregivers' Healthcare-Seeking Behavior for Child's Diarrhea, Fever, and Respiratory Tract Infections and Associated Factors in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Objective: To assess the pooled prevalence of mothers' or caregivers' healthcare-seeking behavior for childhood diarrhea, fever, and respiratory tract infections and associated factors in Ethiopia. Study Design. Systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: Literature searches were conducted through databases (Google Scholar, PubMed, CINHAL, ScienceDirect, HINARI, and gray literatures) from September 1 to 30, 2021, using key terms in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. The characteristics of the original articles were described using text and tables. Heterogeneity among the reported prevalence of studies was checked by using a heterogeneity χ 2 test and I2 test. Publication bias was examined by performing Egger's correlation and Begg's regression intercept tests at a 5% significant level. A random-effect model was employed to estimate the pooled prevalence of the outcome variable and its determinants in Ethiopia. Results: Of the total identified studies, 25 studies were included in the review, with a total of 29,993 study participants. The overall pooled prevalence of mothers' or caregivers' health-seeking behavior for childhood diarrhea, fever, and respiratory tract infections was 60.33% (95% CI: 50.14-70.52). The significant factors were residence (AOR = 3.06, 95% CI: 1.11-8.39), wealth index (AOR = 2.18, 95% CI: 1.92-2.48), perceived severity of illness (AOR = 2.7, 95% CI: 1.12-6.51), and knowledge of the illness (AOR = 1.95, 95% CI: 1.37-2.75). Conclusion: This review suggests that the overall pooled prevalence of mothers' or caregivers' HSB for childhood diarrhea, fever, and respiratory tract infections was 60.33%. Residence, wealth index, perceived severity of illness, and knowledge of the illness by mothers were the significant factors. Therefore, providing interventions by considering the above factors will improve the overall seeking behavior.

Spatial Distribution and Associated Factors of Institutional Delivery among Reproductive-Age Women in Ethiopia: The Case of Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey.

Background: Maternal mortality is unacceptably high. About 295,000 women died during and following pregnancy and childbirth in 2017. The vast majority of these deaths (94%) occurred in low-resource settings, and most could have been prevented. Methods: This research is based on a cross-sectional study using 2016 EDHS data. The analysis included 7,590 women who had given birth in the five years prior to the survey. Clusters with high and low hot spots with institutional delivery were found using SatScan spatial statistical analysis. A multilevel multivariable mixed-effect logistic regression was utilized to discover characteristics associated with institutional delivery. Result: In this study, 33.25% of women who gave birth in the last 5 years preceding the survey delivered their babies at health institutions. The finding also indicated that the spatial distribution of institutional delivery was nonrandom in the country. Variables achieving statically significant association with utilization of institutional delivery were as follows: at the individual level, richness (AOR = 2.18, 95%CI: 1.39-3.41), higher education (AOR = 3.89, 95%CI: 1.51-10.01), a number of antenatal care visits of four and above (AOR = 6.57, 95%CI: 4.83-8.94), and parity of more than two children (AOR = 0.48, 95%CI: 0.34-0.68); at the community level, higher education (AOR = 1.70, 95%CI: 1.22-2.36) and urban residence (AOR = 5.30, 95%CI: 3.10-9.06) were variables that had achieved statically significant association for utilization of institutional delivery. Conclusions: This study identified a spatial cluster of institutional delivery with the Somali and Afar region having low utilization rates and Addis Ababa and Tigray regions having the highest utilization rates. The significant individual factors associated with institution delivery were woman antenatal care visits, household wealth index, maternal education, and parity, and the significant community ones were region, place of residence, and educational status. Therefore, to maximize health facility delivery in Ethiopia, the predictors of institutional delivery identified in this study should be given more attention by governmental and nongovernmental stakeholders.

Health related quality of life and its association with social support among people living with HIV/AIDS receiving antiretroviral therapy in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: People living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) are frequently confronted with severe social issues such as rejection, abandonment, criticism, and stigma. This would negatively affect their quality of life. Several studies have been conducted so far to assess factors affecting the health-related quality of life among people living with HIV/AIDS who are on antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Ethiopia. However, to our knowledge, there is no previous study that has summarized the results of the studies that investigated health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among PLWHA in Ethiopia. Therefore, the purpose of this review was to estimate the pooled prevalence of HRQOL and its association with social support among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) on ART in Ethiopia. METHODS: A systematic search was carried out using several electronic databases (PubMed, Science Direct, Web of Science, and Cochrane electronic), Google Scholar, Google, and a manual search of the literature on health-related quality of life among people living with HIV/AIDS who are on ART. A Microsoft Excel data extraction sheet was used to extract pertinent data from an individual study. To assess the heterogeneity of primary articles, the Cochrane Q test statistics and the I2 test were carried out, and a random effects meta-analysis was used to estimate the pooled prevalence of HRQOL. RESULT: Out of the 493 articles reviewed, ten with a total of 3257 study participants were eligible for meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of HRQOL among people living with HIV/AIDS who are on antiretroviral therapy in Ethiopia was 45.27%. We found that strong perceived social support was significantly associated with higher levels of subjectively perceived HRQOL. PLWHA who were on ART and had good social support were four times more likely to report higher HRQOL when compared to their counterparts [AOR = 4.01, 95% CI 3.07-5.23]. CONCLUSION: A substantial number of PLWHA had poor HRQOL in Ethiopia. Social support was significantly associated with HRQOL among people living with HIV/AIDS. Hence, it's recommended to encourage suitable intervention at every follow-up visit, and psycho-social support is also warranted to improve the quality of life.

Minimum dietary diversity and its associated factors among infants and young children in Ethiopia: evidence from Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (2016).

BACKGROUND: Adequate infant and young child feeding during the first 1000 days of life is very essential to improve child health, survival, growth, and development through minimum dietary diversity (MDD). Hence, this study aimed to assess MDD and its multi-level factors among infants and young children aged 6-23 months in Ethiopia. METHODS: Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS-2016) data was used to identify both individual and community-level factors of dietary diversity. Weighted samples of 2,962 children were eligible and a multi-level regression model was used for the analysis. Finally, factors with a P-value of <0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The prevalence of MDD among children in Ethiopia was 12.09%. According to this study, factors such as having a mother who attended higher education (AOR = 3.09, (95% CI; _1.67-5.71)), being a female household head (AOR = 0.62, (95% CI; _0.40-0.95)), having a mother's agricultural occupation (AOR = 1.89, (95% CI; _1.10-3.23)) and living in the household in the richest wealth index were significantly associated at the individual level. At the community level, children living in rural areas (AOR = 0.62, 95% CI; 0.39-0.98) were significant risk factors for MDD (AOR = 0.62, 95% CI; 0.39-0.98). CONCLUSION: The educational and occupational status of the mother, wealth index, and region were significantly associated with MDD. Hence, strengthening of the existing nutritional intervention is helpful to increase diversified food consumption among children.

Community-based new born care practice and its associated factors among women who give birth at home in Ethiopia: cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: In Ethiopia, perinatal mortality rate was 33 per 1000 pregnancies and 64.4% of this death was occurred within the first 7 days of neonatal life. Moreover, more than 2.1% of new born babies were died within their first seven days of life in Ethiopia. Majority of neonatal deaths are preventable by applying an effective and lifesaving interventions. However, little is known about newborn care practice at the community level. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study design was used. Multi-stage sampling techniques were used to get a total of 540 mothers who gave birth at home within the past six months from their kebeles in Ethiopia. Data was collected by using face-to-face interview with structured questionnaires. Then the data was coded, cleaned, and entered into Epidemiological data version 3.1 and exported to statistical package for social science version 23.0 for analyses. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression model was used to identify statistically significant associations between dependent and independent variables. The odds ratio at 95% confidence interval with P-Value 0.05% was computed. RESULTS: A total of 540 women were participated with a response rate of 98.3%. Only 208 (44%) of the women had good practice towards essential newborn care. Head of households [AOR (95%CI) 2.7417 (1.80-4.25)], type of birth attendant [AOR (95%CI) 3.962 (3.329-7.171)] and bad obstetrical history [AOR (95%CI) 3.151 (2.209-4.969)] were significantly associated with maternal newborn care practice. CONCLUSION: Less than half of the mothers had good newborn care practice. In this study, head of household, type of birth attendant, and bad obstetrical history were significantly associated with maternal newborn care practice. Therefore, Ministry of Women and Woreda women and Child offices needs to promote the socioeconomic empowerment of women to increase the practice of essential newborn care practices.

Overweight and Obesity Among Adult HIV Infected Peoples Receiving ART in Ethiopia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Over-nutrition and diet-linked non-communicable morbidities are showing increasing trend overtime. Even if there are different factors that affect the change in BMI other than ART, several authors have reported increases in BMI among PLHIV on treatment that are equal to or surpass the general population. This study is aimed to estimate the prevalence of obesity and overweight among adult HIV infected peoples taking ART in Ethiopia. METHOD: PubMed, CINAHL, Web of science, global health and Google scholar electronic databases were used to perform a systematic literature search. Two authors independently extracted all the necessary data using a structured data extraction format. Data analysis was done using STATA Version 14. The heterogeneity of the studies was assessed by using I2 test. A random-effects model was used to estimate the pooled prevalence. Publication bias was checked using Funnel plot and Egger's test. RESULT: Two thousand seven hundred and fifty-one studies were reviewed and 13 studies fulfilling the inclusion criteria were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis of 13 studies, comprising 4994 participants resulted in pooled prevalence of overweight to be 17.85% (95% CI: 12.22-23.47). Whereas, the pooled prevalence of overweight was found to be 3.90 (95% CI: 2.31-5.49) but after adjusting for publication bias using trim and fill analysis it has become 3.58 (95% CI: 2.04-5.13). Magnitude of both overweight and obesity was higher in studies conducted in Addis Ababa, studies done after 2016 and studies having sample size of less than 400, in subgroup analysis. CONCLUSION: The magnitude of overweight and obesity among HIV infected peoples taking ART in Ethiopia is high. There is a need to have a routine screening to PLWHA on the risk of over-nutrition in order to facilitate early detection.

Magnitude of, and Factors Associated with Cardiovascular Disease Among Type Two Diabetes Mellitus Patients.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is becoming one of the major health problems in developing countries. The number of adults living with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) worldwide is increasing over time. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the major cause of death in T2DM. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of cardiovascular disease and its associated factors among diabetic patients at the MRC clinic of Dilla University Referral Hospital (DURH). METHODS: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from April to May 2019 . A total of 216 diabetic individuals were selected with a convenient sampling technique from patients on follow-up at DURH MRC. Data were collected using a structured format. The diagnosis of CVD was made with the necessary diagnostic tests and examination. The data analysis was done in SPSS software version 20. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analysis was carried out to identify factors associated with cardiovascular disease. RESULTS: A total of 216 patients participated in the study and the mean age of the study participants was 30 years; 83.3% of the study participants were male. The overall prevalence of cardiovascular disease was 25% of which 57% were ischemic heart disease, 32% were hypertensive and 10% were stroke. Duration of DM for more than 10 years and diabetic drug discontinuation were factors associated with cardiovascular disease. Odds of CVD was nearly four times more in those whose duration of DM is more than 10 years (AOR=4.00, 95% CI: 2.386-6.705) and odds of CVD among those who discontinued medication were almost three times more, (AOR=2.98, 95% CI: 1.287-6.080). CONCLUSION: A quarter of the diabetic population studied developed CVD. Duration of DM for more than 10 years and drug discontinuation are independent associated factors of CVD. Hence appropriate intervention at early stages should be implemented at primary healthcare level.