ABSTRACT
Background: Interventions to prevent childhood illnesses are important components of the Ethiopian Health Extension Program (HEP). Although the HEP was designed to reduce inequities in access to health care; there is little evidence on equitability of preventive interventions in Ethiopia. Purpose: This article describes coverage of preventive interventions and how many interventions individual children received. We also examined which factors were associated with the number of preventive interventions received; and assessed the extent to which interventions were equitably distributed. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey in 3;200 randomly selected households in the rural Jimma and West Hararghe Zones of Ethiopia's Oromia Region. We calculated coverage of 10 preventive interventions and a composite of eight interventions (co-coverage) representing the number of interventions received by children. Multiple linear regressions were used to assess associations between co-coverage and explanatory variables. Finally; we assessed the equitability of preventive interventions by comparing coverage among children in the poorest and the least poor wealth quintiles. Results: Coverage was less than 50 for six of the 10 interventions. Children received on average only three of the eight interventions included in the co-coverage calculation. Zone; gender; caretaker age; religion; and household wealth were all significantly associated with co-coverage; controlling for key covariates. Exclusive breastfeeding; vaccine uptake; and vitamin A supplementation were all relatively equitable. On the other hand; coverage of insecticide-treated nets or indoor residual spraying (ITN/IRS) and access to safe water were significantly higher among the least poor children compared to children in the poorest quintile. Conclusion: Coverage of key interventions to prevent childhood illnesses is generally low in Jimma and West Hararghe. Although a number of interventions were equitably distributed; there were marked wealth-based inequities for interventions that are possessed at the household level; even among relatively homogeneous rural communities