Abstract:Hypertension is a common health problem worldwide. It doubles risk of stroke, myocardial infarction, chronic kidney diseases and peripheral arterial disease. Good control of hypertension is important to decrease these complications. For Good control, life style modification (low salt diet, exercise, weight reduction and cessation of smoking) and Different antihypertensive medications are used. The medicines have to be taken adherently and one has to be consistent in life style modifications. Here the blood pressure control status of hypertensive patients on treatment was assessed. Cross sectional study was conducted collecting data using a pretested questionnaire among all hypertensive patients on treatment at the cardiovascular follow up clinic of University of Gondar Hospital from March 1, 2016 to October 30, 2106. A consecutive of 310 hypertensive patients on pharmacologic therapy for at least 6 months were included. Good blood pressure control was defined as BP< 150/90 for those aged 60 years or above and <140/90 if younger than 60 years. Data was entered and analyzed by using SPSS version 20. Results are depicted descriptively using tables and graphs. Logistic regression was used to evaluate associations.A total of 310 participants (118 males & 192 females) were evaluated. Poor blood pressure control was observed in 115 (37%) of the study participants. Presence of diabetes mellitus (OR: 3.6; CI (1.46-8.8)) and poor adherence to antihypertensive drugs (OR: 6.6; CI (1.5-28.5)) were associated with poor BP control. However duration of hypertension, type or number of antihypertensive medications used were not associated with BP control. Patient older than 60years had good BP control. More than one third of patients have poor BP control. Poor blood pressure control was associated with poor adherence to antihypertensive medications & the presence of diabetes. However, elderly people (≥ 60years) were found to be associated with good BP control.

Background. A lot of effort is being done in the electronic medical record (EMR) system. However, it has not been implemented and used at the expected scale for maximal effectiveness. There is limited evidence on the factors affecting the utilization of EMR in this particular context, which are critical for targeted strategies. Objective. To assess the magnitude and factors affecting the utilization of EMR among health professionals in eastern Ethiopia. Methods. An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among randomly selected 412 health professionals from Harari and Dire Dawa, eastern Ethiopia, using a pretested self-administered questionnaire. The tool was developed from previous literature, and a pilot survey was done before the actual study. Bivariable and multivariable binary logistic regression were done to assess the relationship between an independent variable with EMR use. Crude and an adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval were reported. A P value of less than 0.05 was used to declare a statistically significant association. Results. A total of 412 health professionals with a mean age of 29 years (±6.4 years) were included. A total of 229 (55.6%) and 300 (72.8%) of them had good knowledge and attitude towards the EMR, while 279 (67.7%) used the service (54% used it on a daily basis). About 272 (66%) of the respondents reported that they prefer EMRs to paper-based systems. Health professionals with more than five years of experience had two times higher odds of using the service ( AOR = 2.22 ; 95% CI; 1.12-4.42) than early-career workers. Health professionals trained in EMR would use the service more ( AOR = 5.88 ; 95% CI; 2.93-11.88) compared to those who did not take the training. In addition, having good knowledge ( AOR = 1.52 ; 95% CI; 0.92-1.5) and a good attitude towards the EMR system ( AOR = 2.4 ; 95% CI; 1.35-4.31) showed to use EMR as compared to counterparts. Conclusions. The utilization of EMR was found to be optimal. Age, work experience, knowledge, attitude, and training of professionals were positively associated with the use of the service in their facility.

Background: Globally 56 million (41.8%) of pregnant women had anemia. Low maternal risk perception, poor dietary practice and low adherence to iron tablets among pregnant women are major contributors for high burden of anaemia. Thus the level of maternal awareness and attitude towards dietary and other prevention practices of anaemia are not well established in the study area. Objectives: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of pregnant mother towards the prevention of iron deficiency anaemia in Ethiopia, 2018. Methods: This is institutional based cross sectionals study conducted on randomly selected, 128 pregnant mothers attending antenatal care service in Harar town. Data was collected by health professionals using pre tested questionnaire containing socio demographic, knowledge, attitude and practice related questions. Good and poor knowledge was scored by coding the correct answers as one. Attitude questions were organized in five likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree using positive statements. Similarly practices were assessed in yes/no (appropriate practices were scored as yes or no otherwise). The three indicators were transformed in to categories using the mea score as cut off point. Data was analysed using SPSS version 20 using frequency, tables, graphs and means. Pearson correlation with r was used to assess the relationship between knowledge, attitude and practice. ANOVA was used to compare the mean practice by different factors. Results: Total of 128 mothers were interviewed with mean age of 26.3 (SD=5.8 y). Overall, 61% (95% CI: 52.6% to 69.5%) of pregnant women had a good knowledge on prevention methods of IDA. More than half, 52.3% (95% CI: 43.7% to 61.0%) had favorable attitude towards prevention of IDA. While majority of pregnant women, 58.6% (95% CI: 50.1% to 67.1%) had poor adherence to prevention practice of IDA. Conclusion and recommendations: Knowledge, attitude and practice of pregnant women on preventions of IDA are not satisfactory. Thus poor practice towards prevention of IDA are the main contributing factor for high burden of anemia. Generally there should be focused, simple, easy to understand and customer friendly counseling service at ANC facilities.

<p>Iron and folic acid supplementation is the key approach for anemia prevention and control during pregnancy. In Ethiopia only &lt;1% of pregnant mothers ingest the ideal number of tablets. Although, adherence is the most important challenge, literature is dearth and the predictors are undoubtedly recognized. Institution based quantitative cross sectional study design triangulated with qualitative methods was employed among 395 systematically selected pregnant mothers attending antenatal care in Debre Markos town, Ethiopia. Data were collected using interviewer administered structured questionnaire. Data were entered into Epi data and exported to SPSS software. Bivariate and multivariable Logistic regression with the 95% confidence interval was computed. P-value &lt; 0.05 was declared as statistically significant. Eight in-depth interviews were conducted. The data were entered and analyzed using open code software. Adherence rate was 55.5% (95%CI, 50.5%-60.4%). Pregnant mothers who had; history of anemia during current pregnancy [AOR:7.9, 95%CI (4.44-14.01)], primary education (AOR:4.0, 95%CI (1.88-8.54)], secondary education and above (AOR:3.6, 95%CI (1.20-6.94)], good knowledge of iron and folic acid supplementation [AOR:2.1, 95%CI (1.24-3.56)], and early registration for antenatal care (AOR:1.8, 95%CI (1.06-3.11)] were predictors of iron and folic acid supplementation adherence. The rate of adherence was low. Getting medical advice and fear of illness if missed were the primary reasons that enforce mothers to take the tablets. Hence, improving mothers’ knowledge regarding overall aspects of the tablet through better advice, community teaching and the mass media at large, would improve adherence.</p>

Despite the fact that health facilities in Ethiopia are being built closer to communities in all regions, the proportion of home deliveries remains high, and there are no studies being conducted to identify low birth weight (LBW) and premature newborn babies using simple, best, alternative, and appropriate anthropometric measurement in the study area. The objective of the present study was to find the simple, best, and alternative anthropometric measurement and identified its cut-off points for detecting LBW and premature newborn babies. A health facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted in the Dire Dawa city administration, Eastern Ethiopia. The study included 385 women who gave birth in health facility. To evaluate the overall accuracy of the anthropometric measurements, a non-parametric receiver operating characteristic curve was used. Chest circumference (AUC = 0⋅95) with 29⋅4 cm and mean upper arm circumference (AUC = 0⋅93) with 7⋅9 cm proved to be the best anthropometric diagnostic measure for LBW and gestational age, respectively. Also, both anthropometric measuring tools are achieved the highest correlation (r = 0⋅62) for LBW and gestational age. Foot length had a higher sensitivity (94⋅8 %) in detecting LBW than other measurements, with a higher negative predictive value (NPV) (98⋅4 %) and a higher positive predictive value (PPV) (54⋅8 %). Chest circumference and mid-upper arm circumference were found to be better surrogate measurements for identifying LBW and premature babies in need of special care. More research is needed to identify better diagnostic interventions in situations like the study area, which has limited resources and a high proportion of home deliveries.