BackgroundTraditionally, women have been the main respondents for most of knowledge, attitude and practice survey related to family planning and fertility intention. However it is not well known how responses of women about husbands reflect the husband’s attitude and practices. Thus this study is conducted to examine agreement of wife and husband regarding family planning use and fertility desire in Dukem, Ethiopia.MethodsA community based cross sectional survey was conducted on 422 married couple’s in Dukem town, central Ethiopia which were selected by using systematic sampling method. The study was conducted from November, 2010 to December, 2010. Data pertaining to fertility intentions and contraception was collected and the level of agreement (kappa statistics) between husbands and wives was computed.ResultThe observed concordance was 71.6% for ideal family size, 94.9% for contraceptive attitude, 95.9% for fertility desire, and 99.7% for report of number of currently living children. The unadjusted kappa statistic varied from 0.61(p<=0.000) for contraceptive attitude to high of 0.99(P<=0.000) for number of living children, for ideal family size 0.63(P<=0.000), fertility desire 0.91(P<=0.000), ever use of contraceptive 0.84(P<=0.000) and current use of contraceptive 0.87(P<=0.000) having kappa values in between. Overall greater degree of agreement was observed for reproductive health events as compared to family planning attitudes and intentions.ConclusionIn surveys pertaining to reproductive health events, the wife’s response may be taken as proxy for the couple’s response, but for assessing family planning attitudes and intentions, may require collecting information from husbands and wives separately.

Objective of the study The objective of this study was to identify determinants of syphilis infection among pregnant women attending antenatal care in hospitals in the Wolaita zone, Southern Ethiopia,2020. Methods An unmatched facility-based case-control study was conducted among pregnant women who received antenatal care at four randomly selected hospitals from September 1 to October 30, 2020. A two-stage sampling technique was used in the selection of hospitals and study participants. The data were collected from the participants using a pre-tested structured questionnaire and analyzed using STATA Release 15. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to determine syphilis infection determinants. Crude and adjusted odds ratios were used for each explanatory variable with a 95% confidence level. A statistically significant association was declared when a p-value was less than 0.05. Results A total of 296 (74 cases and 222 controls) pregnant women participated, with a recruitment rate of 97.4%. In multivariate logistic regression, the likelihood of developing a maternal syphilis infection was higher in pregnant women who had more than one-lifetime sexual partner [AOR = 3.59, 95% CI (1.09–11.71)]; a history of sexually transmitted infections [AOR = 3.46, 95%CI (1.32–9.08)] and used a substance [AOR = 3.39, 95%CI (1.31–8.77)]. Conclusion Sexual-related factors continued to be a major determinant of syphilis in pregnant women. The results suggest that there is a need to promote safe sexual behavior, raise awareness about the risk of STIs, and early diagnosis and treatment of STIs to control syphilis infection, and necessary to make the antenatal care service comprehensive for pregnant women.

Background Full vaccination refers to the administration of vaccines/antigens recommended for children in the first year of life. However, little is known about full vaccination in remote, rural Ethiopia. This study aimed to measure full vaccination coverage and associated factors among children aged 12 to 23 months in Demba Gofa District, Southern Ethiopia. Methods A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in April and May 2019 using a multistage sampling technique to select 677 mothers with children 12–23 months of age. Data was collected using a pre-tested structured questionnaire, and data were edited, coded, entered, and cleaned using Epi Info v3.1 and analyzed using SPSS v20. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression was used to understand associations between dependent and independent variables. Results Three-hundred and nine children (47.0%) were fully vaccinated, 274 (41.7%) were partially vaccinated, and 74 (11.3%) were not vaccinated at all. Children were more likely to be vaccinated if decisions were made jointly with husbands (AOR = 1.88, 95% CI [1.06–3.34]), were made by mothers (AOR = 4.03, 95% CI [1.66–9.78]), followed postnatal care (AOR = 5.02, 95% CI [2.28–11.05]), if the child’s age for completing vaccination was known (AOR = 2.54, 95% CI [1.04–6.23]), and if vaccinations did not make the child sick (AOR = 0.32, 95% CI [0.16–0.64]). Conclusion Full vaccination coverage was less than average in the study district and far below the governmental target (90%) necessary for sustained control of vaccine-preventable diseases. Interventions targeted towards maternal healthcare decision-making, postnatal care, knowledge on vaccination timing, and importance should be prioritized to improve full vaccination coverage. A continuous supply of vaccination cards needs to be ensured to improve vaccination conditions.

BackgroundOpportunistic infections (OIs) are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (PLHIV). However, there are few robust recent data on the rates of OIs and the risk factors that contribute to their occurrence. Therefore, the current study sought to determine the incidence of OIs and identify predictors among adolescents and adults after the initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) at Wolaita Sodo University Comprehensive Specialized Hospital (WSUCSH), Southern Ethiopia.MethodsA retrospective cohort study design was employed. The study population was adolescents and adults who initiated ART between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2021. A simple random sampling technique was used to select 537 participants' records. We reviewed the medical records of the sampled individuals from 1 May 2022 to 15 June 2022. KoboCollect version 2021.2.4 and STATA version 14.0 software were used for data collection and analysis, respectively. We calculated the incidence rate per 100 person-years of observation (PYO) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the occurrence of any OIs. The Weibull regression model was fitted after the goodness-of-fit test for the Cox proportional hazard model was deemed inadequate. An adjusted hazard ratio (AHR) with 95% CI was used to identify a significant predictor of OIs. The statistical significance was made at a 5% significance level.ResultsA total of 515 participants contributed to 1,829 person-years of risk, of whom 164 (31.84%) exhibited at least one OI. The overall incidence rate of OIs was 8.97 cases (95% CI: 7.69, 10.44) per 100 PYO. The independent predictors of OIs were being female [AHR: 1.65 (95% CI (1.15, 2.36), P = 0.007)], individuals classified as World Health Organization (WHO) HIV clinical stage III [AHR: 1.98 (95% CI (1.12, 3.51), P = 0.019)], individuals who did not take cotrimoxazole preventive therapy (CPT) [AHR: 2.58 (95% CI (1.62, 4.11), P &lt; 0.001)], mild malnutrition [AHR: 1.62 (95% CI (1.06, 2.54), P = 0.035)], and poor adherence to ART [AHR: 4.21 (95% CI (2.39, 7.44), P &lt; 0.001)].ConclusionThe rate of OIs after the initiation of ART was still high. Moreover, being female, not taking CPT, poor adherence to ART, mild malnutrition, and advanced HIV disease at presentation were found to increase the hazards of developing OIs.