Background: Autonomy of women in health care decision-making is tremendously crucial for improved maternal health outcomes and women’s empowerment. Women with greater freedom of movement are more likely to receive maternal health services. However, little has been investigated about women’s autonomy in maternal health care decision-making and contributing factors in Ethiopia. The aim of this study was to assess decision-making autonomy on maternal health care services utilization and associated factors among women.Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Mettu rural Woreda, Ilu Aba Bor zone, southwest Ethiopia from June 19 to August 20, 2021. Data was collected using a pretested interviewer-administered questionnaire from 541 randomly selected women. The collected data was entered into Epi-Data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 22 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with women's decision-making autonomy on maternal health service utilization. The significance of association was declared by using the odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval and a p-value less than 0.05 in the multivariable model.Results: Out of 522 women included in the analysis, 322 (60.5%) (95% CI: 56.2%-64.7%) were found to be autonomous on maternal health service utilization. Age category from 30-39 years, AOR=4.27 (95%CI: 1.59-11.43), attending primary education and above, AOR=3.87 (95%CI: 2.15-6.99), greater than five family size, AOR=0.25 (95%CI: 0.15-0.41), and distance from the health facility, AOR=5.33 (95%CI: 2.50-11.33) were significantly associated with women's decision-making autonomy on maternal health care services utilization.Conclusion: Even though every woman has the right to participate in her own health care decision-making, around two fifths of them have no role in making health care decisions about their own health. Socio-demographic factors like age and education were found to influence women’s autonomy. Special attention has to be given to women living in rural areas in order to reduce their dependency through education.

The main objective of this study was to determine the levels of fluoride in soft drinks (Coca Cola, Pepsi, Mirinda, Fanta and Sprite) marketed and widely consumed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Three glass-bottled and three plastic-bottled soft drink samples from each brand were purchased randomly from Arat Kilo, Shiromeda and Shola supermarkets, kiosk and tea houses in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Levels of fluoride in the soft drink samples were determined by fluoride ion selective electrode. The method was validated by spiking test which provided percentage recoveries of fluoride in the soft drinks in the range 9196%. The mean fluoride concentration (mg/L) in the glass-bottled and plastic-bottled soft drink samples, respectively, were: Coca Cola (0.03±0.01, 0.06±0.01), Pepsi (0.23±0.01, 0.10±0.01), Mirinda (0.21±0.02, 0.09±0.01), Fanta (0.03±0.01, 0.05±0.01) and Sprite (0.04±0.01, 0.27±0.01). Pearson correlation showed that the levels of fluoride in the soft drinks were found to correlate positively with each other, which indicates similar source of main component (the water used for dilution). The low levels of fluoride in the soft drinks may not impose health risk in the adults but excessive consumption of soft drinks regularly by the children may result in dental fluorosis.