The pooled prevalence of perinatal partner violence against postpartum women for index child: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: The continuous intimate partner violence against postpartum women (perinatal partner violence) is an important indicator of severe violence. However, its prevalence estimates remain dissimilar and show a high variability for three mutually exclusive time periods for index birth: before, during, and after pregnancy. Therefore, this study aimed to determine pooled prevalence of continuous violence against postpartum women (VAPW) for the index child. Method: We performed a comprehensive search for PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, POPLINE, Google, and Google Scholar databases. We included studies reporting the prevalence of VAPW for index child. The meta-analysis was conducted using STATA 14 software, and the forest plot was used to present the pooled estimate. Cochrane Q-statistics and І2 were used to assess heterogeneity. Funnel plots, Egger's, and Begg's tests were used to check publication bias. Result: This systematic review and meta-analysis included a total of sixteen studies with a total of 36,758 participants. The overall pooled prevalence of VAPW for the index child was 9.96% (95% CI: 8.30%, 11.59%). The pooled estimate of lifetime VAPW for index child was 29.27% (95% CI: 23.26%, 35.27%). The overall estimates of lifetime physical, sexual, and psychological VAPW were 11.35%, 6.3%, and 14.74% respectively. In Sub-group analysis, the summary estimate was higher for low-middle income countries, 35.07% (95%CI: 10.15%, 59.98%) and low-income countries, 17.40% (95% CI: 14.08%, 20.72%) than for high-income settings (3.27%, 95% CI: 2.18%, 4.37%). Conclusion: Approximately one out of every ten postpartum women experiences ongoing violence for the index child. When compared to postpartum women in high-income countries, a significant proportion of postpartum women in low- and middle-income countries experience continuous violence. This calls for a universal routine screening program in the continuum of care and working proactively on community-level intervention that prevent violence against women.

Effect of smoking on tuberculosis treatment outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Numerous studies have explored an effect of cigarette smoking on tuberculosis treatment outcomes but with dissimilar conclusions. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of cigarette smoking on tuberculosis treatment outcomes. METHODS: PubMed, Cochrane library and Google scholar databases were searched last on February 27, 2019. We applied the random-effects model for the analysis. Publication bias was assessed using funnel plot and Egger's regression. Furthermore, we performed Orwin's Fail-Safe N and cumulative meta-analysis to check for small studies' effect. RESULTS: Out of 22 studies we included in the qualitative synthesis, 12 studies reported p-values less than 0.05 where smoking significantly favored poor treatment outcomes. The remaining 10 studies reported p-values larger than 0.05 implying that smoking does not affect the treatment outcomes. Twenty studies met the criteria for inclusion in a meta-analysis. The meta-analysis found that smoking significantly increased the likelihood of poor tuberculosis treatment outcomes by 51% (OR = 1.51; 95% CI = 1.30 to 1.75 and I-square = 75.1%). In a sub-group analysis, the effect was higher for low- and middle-income countries (OR = 1.74; 95% CI = 1.31 to 2.30) and upper-middle-income economies (OR = 1.52; 95% CI = 1.16 to 1.98) than for high-income ones (OR = 1.34; 95% CI = 1.03 to 1.75) even though the differences in the effects among the strata were not statistically significant as demonstrated by overlapping of confidence intervals of the effects. Meta-regression analysis, adjusted for income economies, found the effect of smoking has not significantly improved over the years (p = 0.92) and thus implying neither of the covariates were source of the heterogeneity. Egger's regression test indicated that publication bias is unlikely (p = 0.403). CONCLUSION: Cigarette smoking is significantly linked with poor tuberculosis treatment outcomes.

Knowledge about and Attitude towards Epilepsy among Menit Community, Southwest Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND: Nearly 80% of the people with epilepsy are found in developing countries, where epilepsy remains a major public health problem, not only because of its health implications but also for its social, cultural, psychological and economic effects. The objective of this study was to assess knowledge and attitude of Menit community in Benchi-Maji Zone as regards epilepsy. METHODS: The study was conducted in Menit Goldia Province, one of the provinces of Bench-Maji Zone. Community based descriptive cross-sectional study was employed. Households were selected by using systematic sampling technique. Data was collected through pretested interviewer administered questionnaire. Data was cleaned, coded and entered in to EPI data version 3.1. The data was cleaned and transported into SPSS for analysis. RESULTS: Among the study participants, 808(97.1%) ever heard about epilepsy, 85.3% reported that epilepsy is a mental disease where as 40.6%, 49% and 49.4% respectively believed that it is hereditary, contagious, and God's curse. Among the respondents, 252(30%) think that epileptics should be isolated from the community, 387(46.1%) and 336(40%) do not want to shake hands with epileptics and keep their children away from epileptic patients respectively. In this study, 85.6% and86.8% of the respondents were not knowledgeable about and had negative attitude towards epilepsy respectively. Ethnicity and educational status were significantly associated with knowledge and attitude. The FGD participants noted that the disease is God's curse, and they lacked knowledge about the cause of epilepsy. CONCLUSION: The study participants' level of knowledge about and attitude towards epilepsy was not satisfactory. Thus, it needs attention from concerned bodies.

Utilization of institutional delivery service and associated factors in Bench Maji zone, Southwest Ethiopia: community based, cross sectional study.

BACKGROUND: At the end of Millennium development goals, Ethiopia was included among 10 countries which constitutes about 59% of maternal deaths due to complications of pregnancy and/or childbirth every year globally. Institutional delivery, which is believed to contribute in reduction of maternal mortality is still low. Hence this study was conducted in order to assess utilization of institutional delivery and related factors in Bench Maji zone, Southwest Ethiopia. METHODS: Cross sectional study was employed from September 1st - 30th, 2015 in Bench Maji Zone, Southwest Ethiopia where 765 mothers who deliver 2 years preceding the study provided data for this research. Data were collected by enumerators who were trained. In addition to descriptive statistics, binary and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Statistical significance was considered at a p-value < 0.05. Strength of association was also assessed using odds ratios with a 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: About 800 mothers were approached but 765 of them who gave birth 2 years preceding the survey participated and gave consent to the data included in the analysis. About 78.30% delivered their last child in health institution while rest gave birth at home. Factors such as maternal age, religion, occupation, availability of information source as TV/Radio, income quartile, residence, knowledge of problems during labor and antenatal follow up had association with institutional delivery which was significant. CONCLUSION: In Bench Maji Zone institutional delivery was shown to be comparatively good compared to other studies in the region and in Ethiopia in general even though it is below the health sector transformation plan of Ethiopia which aimed to increase deliveries attended by skilled health personnel to 95%. Empowering women, increasing awareness about institutional delivery and proper scaling up of antenatal care services which is an entry point for institutional delivery are recommended.