Background Early initiation of sexual activity affects the sexual and reproductive health of the young population. The youth are at a high risk of risky sexual behaviours, including multiple partners and inconsistent condom use. There has been limited research on the level and determinants of early sexual initiation in Woldia town. Thus, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of early sexual initiation and associated factors among preparatory and high school students in Woldia town, northeast Ethiopia. Methods An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted on 723 students selected by the simple random sampling technique on March 7, 2016. A pre-tested and structured self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics, bivariate and multivariable logistic regression were computed. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was calculated to examine the strength of association. In the multivariable analysis, a p -value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant. Result The prevalence of early sexual initiation among preparatory and high school students in Woldia town was 18.4% (95% CI:15.50,21.30%). Not attending religious programs (AOR = 3.2, 95% CI:1.84,5.44), peer pressure (AOR = 1.9, 95% CI:1.14,3.25), cigarette smoking (AOR = 2.3, 95% CI:1.06,4.85), poor parental monitoring (AOR = 2.8, 95% CI:1.77,4.53), and exposure to pornographic materials (AOR = 2.7, 95% CI:1.68,4.40) were significantly associated with early sexual initiation. Conclusion A large number of students initiated sexual activity at an early age. The practiced is associated with sexual and reproductive health problems. Therefore, raising awareness of students about the risk factors for and implication of early sexual initiation through teachers, religious leaders, and parents is highly recommended. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-019-6682-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Objective Unintended pregnancy is one of the most public health issues in the world, and it is the major sexual and reproductive health problem which carries a higher risk of morbidity and mortality for women, often due to unsafe abortion. Even though family planning services are effective and available than ever before, unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion are the major public health problems in the study area. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the magnitude and associated factors of unintended pregnancy among pregnant women attending antenatal care follow up in Maichew town, northern Ethiopia. An institution based cross-sectional study was conducted on 329 pregnant women selected with a systematic sampling technique from April 5 to May 4, 2017. Result The magnitude of unintended pregnancy among pregnant women attending antenatal care in Maichew was found to be 29.7% (95% CI 24.30, 35.50). On the other hand, single in marital status (AOR = 38.6, 95% CI 10.07, 148.01), living alone (AOR = 9.9, 95% CI 1.80, 53.40) and having three or four children (AOR = 3.5, 95% CI 1.10, 11.04) were factors associated with an unintended pregnancy. Creating awareness about unintended pregnancy associated factors and implication of unintended pregnancy is highly recommended.

Introduction. Delivery of the infant into the arms of a conscious and pain-free mother is the most exciting and rewarding moment in maternal care services. Physical and mental care of women during delivery requires good knowledge and a positive insight to the needs and rights of the mothers. Little was known regarding skilled birth attendants’ knowledge, attitude, and practice towards labor pain management in the study area. Hence, the current study aimed at assessing knowledge, attitude, and practice, and associated factors towards labor pain management among skilled birth attendants working at hospitals found in central, west, and north Gondar zones, northwest Ethiopia, 2019. Method. A multicenter institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from June 1 to 30, 2019. A census sampling technique was used to include a total of 336 skill birth attendants. A pretested standardized self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. The data were then entered into Epi Info 7.1.2 and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were undertaken to identify factors associated with outcome variables. The level of significance of the study was declared based on adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval at a p value of ≤0.05. Result. The proportion of skill birth attendants having good knowledge, a favorable attitude, and a good practice on labor pain relief methods was 47%, 41.96%, and 57.14%, respectively. Age of ≤30 years (AOR = 5.43; 95% CI: 1.25, 23.53), educational status of 2nd degree and above (AOR = 3.56; 95% CI: 1.32, 9.60), working at a private primary hospital (AOR: = 6.55; 95% CI: 2.15, 19.93), and working at a referral hospital (AOR = 2.24 : 95% CI: 1.01, 4.93) are factors significantly associated with good knowledge while having good knowledge on labor pain relief methods (AOR = 2.26; 95% CI: 1.42, 3.60) and working at private primary hospitals (AOR = 7.01; 95% CI: 1.92, 25.65) had statistically significant association with favorable attitude and good practice on labor pain relief methods, respectively. Conclusion and Recommendations. Poor knowledge, unfavorable attitude, and poor practice towards labor pain management were found in this study. Strengthening the capacity of public health facilities and providing continuous professional development (CPD) training for the skilled birth attendants would be helpful in improving knowledge, attitude, and practice towards labor pain management.

Introduction: Mental health disorders during pregnancy are of public health concern because of the implications for the mother and child's health. Mental health issues during pregnancy must, therefore, be diagnosed and addressed. And interventions to improve maternal mental health during pregnancy are critical preventive strategies against adverse health and developmental outcomes in newborns and children. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of common maternal mental disorders and associated factors among pregnant women in North Wollo, Northwest Ethiopia. Objective: The study aimed to assess the magnitude of common mental disorders and associated factors among pregnant women in North Wollo, 2022 Method: Institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted in North Wollo zone public health facilities from February to April 2022. A total of 777 samples were selected using a multistage sampling technique. Women were assessed for the risk of common mental disorders using a pretested, structured, self-reporting questionnaire (SRQ-20). The collected data were entered into Epi-data version 3.1 software and analyzed using R version 4.0 software. Descriptive statistics were computed. A simple logistic regression model was fit to identify the association and strength of exploratory variables and common mental disorders at a 95% confidence interval and p-value < 0.05. Results: The study revealed that the prevalence of common mental disorders during pregnancy was 18.1% (95%CI: 15.5, 21.0). Educational status of participants (AOR=0.17, 95% CI: 0.06, 0.48), husband educational status (AOR=11.13, 95%: 4.18, 29.66), unplanned pregnancy (AOR=2.54, 95% CI: 1.26, 5.09), self-reported complication on the current pregnancy (AOR=0.11, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.21), self-reported complication during the previous delivery (AOR=3.38, 95% CI: 1.39, 8.18), nutritional status (AOR=2.19, 95%: 1.26, 3.81), psychosocial risk (AOR=20.55, 95% CI: 9.69, 43.59), legal problem (AOR=2.06, 95%: 1.12, 3.79) and relationship problem (AOR=7.22, 95% CI: 3.59, 14.53) were showed statistical significant association. Conclusions: The prevalence of common mental disorders among pregnant women was high. Educational status of the participants and their spouse, unplanned pregnancy, self-reported complication during current pregnancy and previous delivery, nutritional status, psychosocial risk, and legal and relationship problem were the main determinants of CMD.

Antiretroviral Treatment (ART) has significantly decreased HIV-related morbidity and mortality among children despite the issue of drug resistance and subsequent treatment failure appearing as a challenge. Different studies have been conducted in Ethiopia regarding the prevalence of first-line ART failure among children but the magnitudes of these studies were inconsistent and had great variability. This review aimed to estimate the pooled prevalence of first line ART failure among children and its association with drug substitution and sex of children among first-line ART users in Ethiopia. The review was conducted using both published and unpublished studies until September 2020 in Ethiopia. MEDLINE, PubMed, Hinari, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Africa journal online (AJOL), Open gray literature, and online repository articles were searched. The quality of individual studies was assessed by Joanna Briggs Institute's (JBI) critical appraisal checklist. The statistical analysis was done by STATA-14 software and a random effect model was used. Heterogeneity was assessed using forest plot Cochrane Q–test and I-squared statistic. Publication bias was checked by using a funnel plot and Egger’s and Begg’s statistical tests. The interpretation was made by an odds ratio and with their respective 95% confidence intervals. The heterogeneity rate was 90% and Begg’s and Egger’s for publication bias were insignificant with p-values of 0.89 and 0.11 respectively. The pooled prevalence of pediatric first line ART failure in Ethiopia was 14.98% (95% CI 11.74, 18.21). Subgroup analysis showed that the highest failure rate was virological (9.13%). Female children had 1.4 times more risk of first-line ART failure (OR = 1.42; 95% CI 1.08, 1.85). First-line ART failure among children in Ethiopia is considerably high. Being female increases the likelihood of facing first line ART failure. More attention should be given to female children.