Baby-friendly workplace initiatives in child feeding practice as predictors of infant and young child anthropometric indices in public health facilities of Southern Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Baby-friendly workplace is an effective evidence based initiative developed by the World Health Organization to protect and support maternal knowledge, beliefs, and confidence in infant and young child feeding practices. However, studies that show the effect of the baby-friendly workplace initiative on the nutritional status of infant and young children are not available in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the nutritional status among baby friendly initiatives service utlizers and non utlizers children age 6-24 months in public health facilities of Southern Ethiopia. METHODS: We conducted a comparative cross-sectional study from 1 to 30 June 2022 among 220 mothers with children aged 6-24 months. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Data were entered into Epidata Software version 4.2 and then exported to IBM SPSS version 26 software for analysis. Chi-square and Fisher exact test were used to assess the differences between users and non-users of the baby friendly workplace initiative. Logistic regression model was used to determine the association between dependent and independent variables. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval was computed. P-values < 0.05 at a 95% confidence level were considered statistically significant. RESULT: The mean (SD) scores of weight for age (WAZ), height for age (HAZ), and weight for height (WHZ) were - 0.38 (1.34),-0.17(2.62) and-0.35 (1.84) respectively. After adjusting for covariates, children aged 6-24 months who did not use baby friendly workplace initiatives were 2.26 times more likely to have stunting compared to the users of baby friendly workplace initiative (AOR 2.26, 95% CI: 1.05, 4.88). However, both wasting (AOR: 0.42; 95% CI:0.13, 1.37) and underweight (AOR: 1.09; 95% CI: 0.45, 2.60) were not significantly associated with the use of baby friendly workplace initiatives. CONCLUSION: The use of baby friendly work place initiatives was successful in improving nutritional status, specifically chronic malnutrition in children. Strengthening and scaling up the baby friendly work place initiative program has the potential to reduce chronic malnutrition in Ethiopia and other similar settings with high burden of malnutrition areas, by implementing it in public facilities.

Health-related quality of life in epilepsy and its associated factors among adult patients with epilepsy attending Mizan Tepi University Teaching Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the mean score of health-related quality of life in epilepsy and its associated factors among adult patients with epilepsy. DESIGN: Institution-based cross-sectional study based on random case selection was conducted. SETTING: The study was carried out at Mizan-Tepi University Teaching Hospital located in Southwest Ethiopia. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 346 patients with epilepsy who visited the psychiatric clinic for follow-up for at least 3 months and who were 18 years or older were included in the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Health-related quality of life in epilepsy measured using quality-of-life in epilepsy (QOLIE)-31 health survey evaluated as a dependent variable with simple and multivariable linear regressions. RESULTS: The overall weighted mean score of health-related quality of life was 55.6 (SD=20.9). Only 50.3% of patients scored above a total score of 50. Age (ß=-0.35, 95% CI-0.46 to -0.23), anxiety (ß=-6.79, 95% CI -9.26 to -4.32), depression (ß=-7.36, 95% CI -10.16 to -4.55), low self-esteem (ß=-5.29, 95% CI -8.07 to -2.51), perceived stigma (ß=-3.62, 95% CI -6.30 to -0.94), taking medication two times or more times per day (ß=-2.4, 95% CI -4.58 to -0.27), being illiterate (ß=-4.1, 95% CI -6.87 to -1.31) and having more than two seizures for a year (ß=-4.18, 95% CI -6.97 to -1.39) were negatively affecting health-related quality of life while income of >1000 birr per month (ß=4.5, 95% CI 2.00 to 6.99), social support (ß=0.34, 95% CI 0.27 to 0.40) and being free of seizure for a year (ß=6.5, 95% CI 3.66 to 9.33) were positively affecting health-related quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: Only half of the patients with epilepsy in the study area are leading a better quality of life and the overall mean health-related quality of life score is lower than the global mean score. Health-related quality of life was inversely associated with age, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, perceived stigma, taking medication two times a day or more, being illiterate and experiencing more than two seizures in a year. Besides controlling seizures, public educational campaigns should be conducted to raise public awareness regarding the need for social support.

Burden of maternal high-risk fertility behaviour on under-five children's health status in Hadiya zone, Southern Ethiopia: a facility-based cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Maternal high-risk fertility behaviours (HRFBs) are common in African countries and can potentially affect child survival. Evidence of the burden of maternal HRFB on under-five children is scant in Ethiopia. OBJECTIVE: To determine the burden of maternal HRFB on under-five children's health status in Hadiya zone, Southern Ethiopia. DESIGN: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted. SETTING: All secondary and tertiary public healthcare centres; that are, one referral and three district hospitals providing comprehensive emergency obstetric care services in the Hadiya zone, Southern Ethiopia. PARTICIPANTS: Three hundred women of reproductive age (15-49 years) who had undergone childbirth in the 5 years preceding this study and living with at least one child younger than 5 years admitted to public hospitals in Hadiya zone were included. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Under-five children's health status. RESULTS: The overall proportion of maternal HRFB among currently married women was 60.3%, with 35.0% falling into a single high-risk category and 25.3% falling into multiple high-risk categories. Children younger than 5 years born to mothers having HRFB had an increased chance of acute respiratory infections five times, diarrhoea six times, fever eight times, low birth weight six times and a chance of dying before the fifth birthday two times than children born to mothers with no risk. The risks of morbidity and mortality further increased when children were born to mothers falling into multiple high-risk categories. CONCLUSIONS: The overall proportion of maternal HRFB among currently married women was high in the study area. A statistically significant association was seen between maternal HRFB and health outcomes of children younger than 5 years old. Intervening to avert maternal HRFBs through family planning may help to reduce childhood morbidity and mortality.

Adolescent-parent communication on sexual and reproductive health issues and its factors among secondary and preparatory school students in Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia: institution based cross sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Adolescent communication with parents is paramount to reduce sexual health problems. Currently, there is a shortage of information on adolescent-parent communication in Ethiopia in general and study area in particular. Thus, this study is intended to determine adolescent-parent communication on sexual and reproductive health issues and its factors among secondary and preparatory school adolescents in Hadiya Zone, Ethiopia. METHODS: We used institution based cross-sectional study design. We stratified schools into urban and semi-urban settings. Then, a total of 8 schools were randomly selected from the strata. The sample size was allocated for each stratum. Finally, participants were randomly selected from separate sampling frames prepared for each stratum. We developed structured questionnaire from related literatures to collect data on adolescent-parent communication and its factors. We cleaned and entered data using EPI info version 3.5.3 and exported to SPSS version 20 for descriptive and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The proportion of adolescents who had communicated with their parents was 144 (35.0%). Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicates that participants' knowledge about availability of adolescent and youth friendly sexual and reproductive health services at health facilities [AOR: 0.40, 95% CI: (0.26, 0.62),P-value = 0.001], utilization of adolescent and youth friendly sexual and reproductive health services [AOR: 0.46, 95% CI: (0.29, 0.72),P-value = 0.001] and respondents' educational status: being grade 9, [AOR: 3.21, (95% CI: ((1.16, 8.89), P-value = 0.025] and grade 11; [AOR: 2.96, (95% CI: (1.06, 8.30),P- value =0.039] were statistically associated factors affecting adolescents for not communicating with parents on sexual and reproductive health issues. CONCLUSION: The findings of our study imply that adolescents were not communicating much with parents about sexual and reproductive health issues even though they were aware of adolescent and youth friendly sexual and reproductive health services. In addition, promotion of service availability may be important to motivate adolescents to communicate with parents. Contextual and age dependent communication barriers should be further identified. Further research is needed in the area to identify barriers particularly from parent side.