Prevalence and determinants of cardiac arrhythmias and conduction anomalies in adults aged ≥ 40 years in Jimma Town, Southwest of Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.

Background: The prevalence of cardiac arrhythmia (CA) in the Ethiopian population is unknown. A community study was conducted to assess the magnitude and predictors of CAs in adults aged≥40 years in Jimma Town. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Jimma town from May to July 2017. A total of 634 adults aged 40 years or older were selected using a systematic sampling technique from six kebeles of the Town. Study participants were screened for CA using a 12-lead ECG machine. Face-to-face interviews, anthropometric, important clinical measurements were performed. Data analysis was done using SPSS for windows version 21.0. Results: A total of 634 study participants, significant CA occurred in 217 individuals (34.2%). Conduction abnormalities and sinus bradycardia were the commonest findings (25.4%). Premature beats (ventricular 1.9%, atrial 1.1%) and atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (2.1%) were the next most frequent arrhythmias. Arrhythmias were independently associated with smoking(AOR=1.9;P=.047), hypertension(AOR=1.5;P=.02), heart failure(AOR=2.06;P=.023), prior stroke(AOR=4.9;P=.001), previous history of MI(AOR=1.78;P=.039), vigorous intensity activities(AOR=0.56;P=.024), solidified vegetable oil consumption(AOR=3.5;P=.004), and occupation(pensioner, none)[AOR=1.7;P=.017]. Conclusion: CA is highly prevalent in Jimma. Hypertension and history of heart diseases are the most potent predictors of cardiac arrhythmia. Large-scale screening for early detection of arrhythmia has important implications for treatment.

Prevalence and determinants of cardiac arrhythmias and conduction anomalies in adults aged ≥ 40 years in Jimma Town, Southwest of Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.

Background: The prevalence of cardiac arrhythmia (CA) in the Ethiopian population is unknown. A community study was conducted to assess the magnitude and predictors of CAs in adults aged≥40 years in Jimma Town. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Jimma town from May to July 2017. A total of 634 adults aged 40 years or older were selected using a systematic sampling technique from six kebeles of the Town. Study participants were screened for CA using a 12-lead ECG machine. Face-to-face interviews, anthropometric, important clinical measurements were performed. Data analysis was done using SPSS for windows version 21.0. Results: A total of 634 study participants, significant CA occurred in 217 individuals (34.2%). Conduction abnormalities and sinus bradycardia were the commonest findings (25.4%). Premature beats (ventricular 1.9%, atrial 1.1%) and atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (2.1%) were the next most frequent arrhythmias. Arrhythmias were independently associated with smoking(AOR=1.9;P=.047), hypertension(AOR=1.5;P=.02), heart failure(AOR=2.06;P=.023), prior stroke(AOR=4.9;P=.001), previous history of MI(AOR=1.78;P=.039), vigorous intensity activities(AOR=0.56;P=.024), solidified vegetable oil consumption(AOR=3.5;P=.004), and occupation(pensioner, none)[AOR=1.7;P=.017]. Conclusions: CA is highly prevalent in Jimma. Hypertension and history of heart diseases are the most potent predictors of cardiac arrhythmia. Large-scale screening for early detection of arrhythmia has important implications for treatment.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice Toward Prevention of COVID-19 Among Jimma Town Residents: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was first reported by the World Health Organization on 31 December 2019, and later, it was declared a global pandemic on 12 March 2020. To date, it is a great challenge to the world including Ethiopia. Therefore, to attain effective prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic, improving the knowledge, attitude, and practices of the community is necessary. Objective: To assess, knowledge, attitudes, and practice, and associated factors of COVID-19 among Jimma Town residents. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,500 Jimma town residents from May through June 2020. Adults aged ≥18 years were included in the study. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire that was adopted from different literature. A face-to-face interview was implemented to collect data. Analysis was done by using SPSS version 22. p < 0.05 was used to declare statistical significance. Result: A total of 1,500 participants were enrolled in the study. The majority of the respondents were female (59.3%). About 841 (56.1%) of the participants had knowledge about COVID-19. Educational status, household wealth index, and employment showed association with knowledge of COVID-19. Government-owned television (37.3%) was the primary source of information about COVID-19 in the Jimma population. Only 46.6% of respondents had good attitudes toward the COVID-19 pandemic and about 638 (42.5%) of the study participants had good practice toward COVID-19. The mean practice score was 1.98 (± 0.319). Study participants who were residing in the outskirts of the town were 0.37 less likely to apply good practice regarding COVID-19 prevention measures than those around the center of the town. Whereas, households with a family size of four to five individuals were 1.4 times more likely to show good practice against COVID-19 compared to households with ≤3 individuals (AOR: 1.41; CI: 1.05, 1.91). Conclusion: Jimma town community has low knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding COVID-19. Knowledge, attitude, and practice scores regarding COVID-19 are significantly related to educational status, being self-employed, occupation, marital status, residence, family size, and household relative wealth index. Preventive health advisories to upraise knowledge, attitude, and practice are crucial to prevent and control COVID-19.

The status of serum cortisol before and after treatment of schizophrenia and its correlation to disease severity and improvement: A longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis functioning, with cortisol as its major output hormone, has been presumed to play a key role in the development of psychopathology of schizophrenia. OBJECTIVE: We examined the association of serum cortisol with disease severity and improvement in schizophrenia patients in Jimma, Ethiopia. METHOD: A total of 34 newly diagnosed schizophrenics were included in this study. Data on demographic, behavioral, clinical state, serum cholesterol level, and antipsychotic usage were obtained at baseline and after 8 weeks. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale was used to assess psychotic symptoms severity. A paired sample t-test was used to compare baseline and post-treatment values. Linear regression was used to assess associations. RESULT: Post-treatment serum cortisol level was significantly lower than its baseline value (p = 0.001). There was also a significant positive and negative psychotic symptoms decrease after treatment (baseline positive psychotic vs post-treatment positive psychotic symptoms: t(33) = 6.24 (95% confidence interval = 7.03,13.84, p = 0.000) and (baseline negative psychotic vs post-treatment negative psychotic symptoms: t(33) = 4.21 (95% confidence interval = 3.82, 10.99, p = 0.000).At baseline, neither positive nor negative subscore on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale showed an association with serum cortisol level (B = -0.016, p = 0.794 and B = -0.032, p = 0.594). However, serum cortisol level showed strong associations with post-treatment positive sub scores and negative sub scores (B = 0.167, p = 0.007) and (B = 0.144, p = 0.010) on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. CONCLUSION: We found a significant decrease in serum cortisol level after antipsychotics treatment and that was associated with improvement in psychotic symptoms in schizophrenics in Jimma, Ethiopia.