Time to first birth and its predictors among reproductive-age women in Ethiopia: multilevel analysis using shared frailty model.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the time to first birth and its predictors among reproductive-age women in Ethiopia. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Nationwide secondary data analysis using mini Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey, 2019. A stratified, two-stage cluster sampling technique was used to select the sample. Among 9012 women of age 15-49 years, 8885 completed the interview yielding a response rate of 99%. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURED: Time to first birth was determined. Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the time to first birth. The lognormal inverse Gaussian shared frailty model was used to model the data at a 95% CI. CI and adjusted time ratio (ATR) were reported as effect size. Statistical significance was declared at p-value<0.05. RESULTS: The overall median time to give first birth was 18 years (IQR: 15, 21). Age 20-29 (ATR=1.08; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.12), Age>29 years (ATR=1.08; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.11), northern regions (ATR=1.06; 95% CI, 1.03 to 1.08), rural residence (ATR=0.95; 95% CI, 0.93 to 0.98), never using contraceptive methods (ATR=0.98; 95% CI, 0.96 to 0.99), sex of household head (ATR=1.01; 95% CI, 1 to 1.03), poorest wealth index (ATR=1.04; 95% CI, 1.02 to 1.06) and richest wealth index (ATR=1.07; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.1) were the significant predictors of time to first birth among reproductive-age women. CONCLUSION: In Ethiopia, women often gave birth to their first child at a younger age than what is recommended. Explicitly, women aged 20-29 and over 29, living in the northern region, leading a household as females, and belonging to the poorest or wealthiest wealth index tended to have a slightly delayed first childbirth. On the other hand, women in rural areas and those who had never used contraception were more likely to have an early first birth. The findings indicated the necessity of implementing targeted measures for rural Ethiopian women, especially those lacking knowledge about contraception.

Antenatal care component utilization and associated factors among pregnant women in Ethiopia: Multilevel analysis of Ethiopian Mini Demographic and Health survey 2019.

INTRODUCTION: Maternal and neonatal health are among the top prioritised agendas of global health care with due emphasis given to developing countries, where the burden is profound. Antenatal care accompanied by its recommended components is highly beneficial for both maternal health and birth outcome. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to identify the proportion of pregnant women who received adequate Antenatal care components and associated factors among Ethiopian women. METHODS AND MATERIALS: We used a nation-wide data from Mini Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey (MEDHS) of 2019. All women of age 15-49 and who had at least one ANC visit, who were either permanent residents of the selected households or visitors who slept in the household the night before the survey, were eligible to be interviewed. Since we utilised multilevel logistic regression model, the STATA output had two components, the fixed effect and the random effect. In our model, the fixed effect part was displayed by odds ratio while the random effect was addressed by variance and intra-cluster correlation (ICC). RESULTS: From the total women with at least one antenatal care (ANC) visit 55.41% (95% CI 53.60%, 57.20%) of them received adequate components of the care. In the final model after adjusting for the cluster and individual level variables, attending primary (AOR = 1.45; 95% CI: 1.15 to 1.84), secondary (AOR = 2.21; 95% CI: 1.51 to 3.24) and higher education (AOR = 2.42; 95% CI: 1.38 to 4.26) were significantly associated with higher odds of receiving adequate components of ANC. Similarly, wealth index of middle (AOR = 1.51; 95% CI: 1.06, 2.14), richer (AOR = 1.92; 95% CI: 1.32, 2.80), and richest (AOR = 3.86; 95% CI: 2.35, 6.33) compared to poorest index and having two or more ANC visits were significantly associated with receiving adequate components of ANC. On the other hand, being from Oromia region, from female headed household and protestant religion were negatively associated with receiving adequate components of ANC. CONCLUSION: The proportion of women who received adequate ANC component was much lower compared to the universal recommendation for every woman on ANC visit. Educational status, wealth index, number of ANC visit, region of residence and type of health facility were significantly associated with the odds of receiving adequate components of ANC. The government should pay attention to those without any formal education, encouraging pregnant women to receive the optimum number of ANC visits, and devising techniques to address those in poorest wealth index so that the proportion of adequate components of ANC will be increased.

Prevalence and determinants of adequate postnatal care in Ethiopia: evidence from 2019 Ethiopia mini demographic and health survey.

BACKGROUND: The postpartum period is critical for both the mother's and newborn child's health and survival. Rising morbidity and mortality are usually the consequence of absence of adequate, suitable, or timely care during that time period. There is lack of information on the adequacy of postnatal care in Ethiopia and this study was aimed to investigate adequacy of postnatal care and its determinants in the study area. METHODS: In this study, we used a cross-sectional dataset from the 2019 Ethiopia Mini Demographic and Health Survey. A multistage stratified clustered design applied and survey weights were used to take into account the complicated sample design. A multilevel mixed effects logistic regression was fitted on 3772 women who were nested within 305 clusters. The fixed effect models were fitted and expressed as adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals, while intra-class correlation coefficients, median odds ratio, and proportional change in variance explained measures of variation. As model fitness criteria, the deviance information criterion and the Akaike information criterion were used. RESULTS: This study found that only 563(16.14%, 95% CI: 16.05-16.24) women had adequate post natal care. Age of between 25-35 years old (AOR = 1.55, 95%CI = 1.04-2.31), secondary level of education (AOR = 2.23, 95%CI = 1.43-3.45), Having parity of between two and four had (AOR = 0.62, 95%CI = 0.42 0.93), having ANC follow up four and above (AOR = 1.74, 95%CI = 1.31-2.33), being residents of Oromia region (AOR = 0.10, 95CI = 0.02- 0.43) were strong predictors of adequate postnatal care. CONCLUSION: The study found that prevalence of adequate PNC in Ethiopia was significantly low. To increase postnatal care adequacy, it was recommended to reinforce existing policies and strategies such as increasing number of antenatal care follow up, and scheduling mothers based on the national postnatal care follow-up protocol.

Assessment of preventive behavior and associated factors towards COVID-19 in Qellam Wallaga Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia: A community-based cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The world is being challenged by the COVID-19 outbreak that resulted in a universal concern and economic hardship. It is a leading public health emergency across the globe in general and developing countries in particular. Strengthening good preventive behavior is the best way to tackle such pandemics. OBJECTIVE: The study assessed preventive behavior and associated factors towards COVID-19 among residents of Qellam Wallaga Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, 2020. METHODS: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted with a multistage sampling technique. Data were collected by interview and analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. Binomial logistic regression was used to test the association between the variables. An Adjusted Prevalence with 95% CI was used to express the associations and interpret the findings. RESULTS: Among 634 participants, 417(65.8%) were from urban residences, and 347 (54.7%) belongs to a female. Age ranges 18 years through 87 years. Only 68(10.7%) participants showed good preventive behavior for COVID-19. The majority of them (84.7%) perceived that the disease is very dangerous and 450(71.0%) of them believe that they are at high risk. More than 17% of the respondents have sufficient knowledge. Respondents with sufficient knowledge about COVID-19 were about 2 times more likely to exercise good preventive behavior compare to those with insufficient knowledge, [(APR: 2.1; 95% CI: [1.2, 3.9)]. The urban residents was 3.3 more than that of rural residents to practice good preventive behavior, [(APR: 3.3; 95% CI: [1.6, 6.4)]. Respondents who use social media as a source of information were more than 2 times more likely to have good preventive behavior compared to those who did not, [(APR: 2.3; 95% CI: [1.3, 3.4)]. CONCLUSION: Adoptions of COVID-19 preventive behavior in the study population is very low. Due emphasis should be given to rural residents. Risk communication activities should be strengthened through effective community engagement to slow down and stop the transmssion of the disease in the community.