Parents' willingness to vaccinate their daughters with human papillomavirus vaccine and associated factors in Debretabor town, Northwest Ethiopia: A community-based cross-sectional study.

The Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is the primary causative agent of cervical cancer. Vaccination against the HPV infection is an effective prevention measure for HPV-related diseases. This study aimed to assess parents' willingness to vaccinate their daughters with Human Papillomavirus vaccine and associated factors in Debre Tabor town. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among parents of daughters in Debre Tabor town, and a cluster sampling technique was used to select 738 study participants. A structured and interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were entered into EPI data version 4.6 and exported to SPSS version 26 for analysis. Multivariable logistic regression was done and a p-value of ≤ 0.05 was used to declare the level of significance. In this study, parents' willingness for HPV vaccination was found to be 79.10% (95% CI: 76.00, 82.00). Parents having media exposure, had good knowledge of HPV infection, and HPV vaccine, positive attitude, and positive perceived behavioral control toward the HPV vaccine had statistically significant association with willingness for the HPV vaccination of their daughters. Parents' willingness to HPV vaccination for their daughters was higher compared with a previous study done in the setting. Parental knowledge and their beliefs on HPV vaccination, and media exposure play an important role in the HPV vaccination of adolescents. Strengthening community-based education and effective promotion through multimedia on HPV infection and its prevention, addressing parental safety concerns and promoting their positive beliefs about the vaccine are important to increase parents' willingness.

Antenatal care follow-up decreases the likelihood of cultural malpractice during childbirth and postpartum among women who gave birth in the last one-year in Gozamen district, Ethiopia: a community-based cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Recent evidence has found widespread reports of women experiencing cultural malpractice during childbirth in Asia and sub-Saharan African countries. Despite an endeavor made to drop maternal and neonatal mortality, Ethiopia remains amongst the highest mortality rate. Thus, strengthening antenatal care (ANC) follow-up is the midst of cultural malpractice reduction during childbirth. This study was aimed to assess the magnitude of cultural malpractice and associated factors during childbirth and postpartum among women who gave birth within one year in Gozamen district, Ethiopia. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted from November 1st to December 30th, 2019. A two-stage sampling technique was used to get a total of 600 women who gave birth within the last one year. Data were collected by using a semi-structured and pretested questionnaire. Then, data were entered into Epi info version 7.0 and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Both bivariate analysis and a multivariable logistic regression model were fitted. The level of significance was declared based on the adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with its 95% confidence interval (CI) and a p-value of ≤0.05. RESULT: The Overall magnitude of cultural malpractices during childbirth and postpartum was found to be 31.2% (95%CI: 27.8, 34.7). Out of 600 women, 203(33.9%) were delivered at home, 67(11.2%) practiced abdominal massage, 31(16.6%) avoided colostrum, 24(12.8%) practiced pre-lacteal feeding and 138 (23%) washed their baby before 24 h after delivery. Mothers who have antenatal follow-up (AOR=0.52 95%CI 0.28, 0.94), married marital relation (AOR=0.24, 95%CI:0.07, 0.89), being farmer husband occupation (AOR=6.25 (95%CI: 1.22, 30.30), parity ≥5 (AOR=5, 95%CI: 2.44, 9.52), had significant association with cultural malpractice during childbirth and postpartum. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed there is an improvement in the magnitude of cultural malpractices during childbirth and postpartum, but still it's high as compared to the country's maternal health service utilization aim. A well-enforced health education program by well-trained healthcare personnel besides sufficient number of ANC visits are needed to overcome these cultural practices. Further, intervention modalities health education communication outreach programs would be very important to reduce the prevalence of cultural malpractices in the community.

Prevalence and associated factors of pelvic organ prolapse among women attending gynecologic clinic in referral hospitals of Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia.

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: While pelvic organ prolapse is common in clinical observation, there is a lack of evidence regarding its actual proportion and associated factors in the study area. Understanding the prevalence and risk factors could potentially help with prevention. Thus, this study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors related to pelvic organ prolapse in the Amhara region, northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 424 women, recruited by the systematic random sampling technique. Data were collected in a face-to-face interview using a structured and pre-tested questionnaire to assess the symptoms of pelvic organ prolapse and the socio-demographic, obstetric, gynecologic, medical and surgical characteristics. The stage of prolapse was determined by pelvic examination using the Simplified Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification staging system. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were employed. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of pelvic organ prolapse (stage I-IV) was found to be 37.6% when determined by pelvic examination and 9.2% as assessed by prolapse symptoms. Age ≥ 40 years [AOR 2.46 (1.320, 5.314)], age at first delivery ≤ 20 years [AOR 4.719 (2.44, 9.11)], carrying heavy objects for ≥ 5 hours a day [AOR 12.724 (4.89, 33.07)], parity ≥ 4 [AOR 3.739 (1.693, 8.208)], prolonged labor [AOR 3.487 (1.699, 7.159)], constipation [AOR 2.835 (1.273, 6.317)] and anemia [AOR 2.22 (1.049, 4.694)] were significantly associated with pelvic organ prolapse. CONCLUSION: Prevalence of pelvic organ prolapse is high in the area; thus, developing information and education programs on avoiding risk factors is advisable to reduce the problem.

Delayed breast feeding initiation increases the odds of colostrum avoidance among mothers in Northwest Ethiopia: a community-based cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Colostrum is a yellowish and sticky breast milk produced in late pregnancy. Annually, 60% of 10.9 million under-five deaths globally are due to malnutrition. Of these, over two-thirds of the deaths are accounted by sub-optimal feeding practices in the first year of life, including colostrum discarding. However, evidence on the magnitude of colostrum avoidance and its associated factors at the community level is very limited in Ethiopia, particularly in the study area. Thus, this study aimed to assess the magnitude of colostrum avoidance and associated factors among mothers who gave birth in the last six months in Gozamen district, northwest Ethiopia, 2019. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 741 (741) mothers who gave birth in the last six months in Gozamen district from August 1 to September 12, 2019. A stratified cluster sampling technique was used to select the study participants. Data were collected by face-to-face interviewer-administered, pretested, and semi-structured questionnaire. Binary logistic regressions (bi-variable and multivariable) were fitted to identify statistically significant variables. Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) was used to declare statistically significant variables on the basis of p-value < 0.05 in the multivariable binary logistic regression. RESULTS: This study indicated that the magnitude of colostrum avoidance was 22.1% (95% CI, 19.0, 25.2%). Mothers who did not get counseling on timely initiation of breast feeding (AOR = 3.91[95% CI, 1.98, 7.72]), not participate in pregnant woman forum (AOR = 2.59[95% CI, 1.30, 5.14]), initiate breast-feeding lately (more than 1 h) (AOR 2.27[95% CI, 1.18, 4.34]), and those having unfavorable attitude towards colostrum feeding (AOR = 7.35[95% CI, 3.89, 13.91]) were factors associated with the increased likelihood of colostrum avoidance. However, institutional delivery (AOR; 0.06[95% CI, 0.02, 0.19]) and prelacteal feeding (AOR; 0.10[95% CI, 0.05, 0.21]) were predictors associated with reduced likelihood of colostrum avoidance. CONCLUSION: Colostrum avoidance is a common practice in the study area. Therefore, in order to reduce this practice, strengthening infant feeding counseling, promoting institutional delivery, timely initiation of breastfeeding, health education, and community advocating are recommended interventions. In addition, creating awareness on the benefits of colostrum feeding is very instrumental to tackle the practice of colostrum avoidance.

Proportion of neonatal sepsis and determinant factors among neonates admitted in University of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital neonatal Intensive care unit Northwest Ethiopia 2017.

OBJECTIVE: Neonatal sepsis is one of the most common causes of neonatal hospitalization in developing countries. It is also a major cause of mortality in the world affecting both developed and developing countries. Diagnosis and management of sepsis are a great challenge facing neonatologists in neonatal intensive care units due to nonspecific signs and symptoms. This study, therefore, was aimed to determine proportion and risk factors of neonatal sepsis at university of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital, North West Ethiopia. RESULT: The proportion of neonatal sepsis was 11.7%. Factors significantly associated with neonatal sepsis were: Neonatal related factors were: Premature rupture of membrane (AOR = 2.74; 95% Cl (1.39, 5.38), congenital anomaly (AOR = 3.14; 95% CI (1.09, 10.28), and low Apgar score (AOR = 2.69; 95% Cl (1.37, 5.26). Maternal factors were: foul-smelling vaginal discharge (AOR = 2.75; 95% Cl (1.40, 5.38), and Intrapartum fever (AOR = 3.35; 95% Cl (1.7, 6.62). In this finding proportion of Neonatal sepsis was low as compared to previous studies. Measures targeting the prevention of premature rupture of membranes and low Apgar score need to be taken, like strengthening maternal birth preparedness and complication readiness plans. Also, identification of congenital anomalies earlier in pregnancy and taking measures to avoid birth injury may decrease neonatal sepsis.