The use of antenatal care (ANC) plays a major role in minimizing maternal and child mortality through effective and appropriate screening, preventive, or treatment intervention. Even though almost all pregnancy-related mortalities are largely preventable through adequate use of ANC, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), particularly East African Countries, continues to share the largest share of global maternal, and newborn mortality. Therefore, this study assesses if educational attainment is associated with optimal ANC utilization in East Africa. Methods: A secondary data analysis was done based on Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from 2010 to 2018 in the 11 East African Countries. A total weighted sample of 84,660 women who gave birth in the 5 years preceding each country's DHS survey and had ANC visits were included in this study. Data processing and analysis were performed using STATA 15 software. A multilevel mixed-effect logistic regression model was fitted to examine the association of educational attainment and ANC utilization. Variables with a p-value <0.05 were declared as significant factors associated with ANC utilization. Model comparison was done based on Akaike and Bayesian Information Criteria (AIC and BIC). Results: The magnitude of optimal ANC utilization in East African Countries was 56.37% with 95% CI (56.03, 56.69) with the highest optimal ANC utilization in Zimbabwe (80.96%) and the lowest optimal ANC utilization in Rwanda (44.31%). Women who had higher education levels were more likely to have optimal ANC utilization, compared to those with no education (AOR = 2.34; 95 and CI; 2.11-2.59). Women who had media exposure were more likely to have optimal ANC utilization than those who have no media exposure (AOR = 1.07; 95% CI; 1.03, 1.10). Conclusion: Antenatal care utilization was low in East African countries. Educational attainment, maternal age, wealth index, birth order, media exposure, and living countries were factors associated with ANC utilization. Efforts to improve antenatal care and other maternal health service utilization in East Africa must take into account these factors. Specifically, working on the access to mass media by women may also improve antenatal care utilization.

Background The very unprecedented virus causing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has continued causing catastrophes in economy and loss of human lives. Despite countries’ urgent and resilient public health actions against the COVID-19 pandemic, the disease is causing a large number of deaths. However, predictors of mortality among hospitalized COVID-19 patients have not been well investigated in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the predictors of mortality among hospitalized COVID-19 patients at a tertiary care hospital in Ethiopia. Methods A hospital-based retrospective cohort design study was implemented among hospitalized COVID-19 patients at a tertiary care hospital in Harar, Ethiopia from March 20 to August 20, 2021. Data of 531 admitted patients were entered using Epi-data 3.1 and exported to STATA 14.2 for analysis. Binary logistic regression was used to identify significant predictors of outcome variables with an adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval. Results Of the total 531 study participants, 101 deaths occurred. The mortality rate was 16.2 per 1000 person-days of observation with median survival time of 44 days with IQR [28, 74]. Smoking history [AOR=2.55, 95% CI (1.15, 5.65)], alcohol history [AOR=2.3, 95% CI (1.06, 4.97)], comorbidities [AOR=2.95, 95% CI (1.26, 6.91)], and increasing oxygen saturation [AOR=0.92, 95% CI (0.89, 0.95)], and lymphocyte count [AOR=0.90, 95% CI (0.88, 0.97)] were independent significant predictors of death from Covid-19. Conclusion The incidence of mortality among hospitalized COVID-19 patients was found to be high. Devising individual, tailored management for patients with “risk” behaviors, comorbid conditions, and poor prognostic markers such as lymphopenia and low oxygen saturation, may reduce the incidence of death among hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Introduction: Antenatal care offers a forum for critical healthcare functions, including health education, screening, and disease prevention. Several pocket studies carried out in specific localities of East African countries were investigated. However, these were neither representative of the country nor specific to the recommended minimum of four antenatal care visits. Therefore, this study aimed to identify factors associated with quality of antenatal care among pregnant women in East Africa. Methods: A secondary data analysis was done using Demographic and Health Survey data of six East African Countries from 2008 to 2018. A total of 46,656 women who gave birth in the 5 years preceding the survey were included in this study. A multilevel mixed-effect logistic regression model was fitted. Variables with a p-value < 0.05 were declared as significant factors associated with the quality of antenatal care. Results: The magnitude of quality of antenatal care in East Africa was 11.16% (95% confidence interval: 10.87–11.45). Women of age 35–49 (adjusted odds ratio = 1.51; 95% confidence interval: 1.25–1.80), primary education (adjusted odds ratio = 1.35; 95% confidence interval: 1.18–1.55), richest wealth index (adjusted odds ratio = 2.35; 95% confidence interval: 2.02–2.74), and rural resident (adjusted odds ratio = 0.62; 95% confidence interval: 0.55–0.69) were among factors significantly associated with quality of antenatal care. Conclusion: The magnitude of antenatal care quality was low in East Africa. Age, level of education, wealth index, birth order, husband/partners’ level of education, residence, and living countries were among the factors associated with the quality of antenatal care. It would be useful to increase financial support strategies that enable mothers from poor households to use health services and enhance women’s understanding of the significance of antenatal care utilization through health education targeting both women and partners with no education is very crucial.

Background. Prelacteal feeding is defined as administration of any substances other than breast milk to newborn babies during the first 3 days after birth. Despite its negative health outcomes, it is commonly practiced in developing countries. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing the prevalence of pre-lacteal feeding practices and associated factors among mothers of children aged less than 2 years of age in Kersa district, Eastern Ethiopia. Method. A community-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 465 mothers having children aged less than 2 years in Kersa district. A multistage sampling technique was used to select study participants. Binary logistic regression analysis was fitted to identify factors associated with prelacteal feeding practices. Variables with a P-value <.05 were identified as statistically significant factors. Results. The prevalence of pre-lacteal feeding in Kersa district was 46.4% (95% CI; 42.0%, 51.5%). Initiating breastfeeding after 1 hour of delivery (AOR = 10.80, 95% CI: (5.79, 20.17)), giving birth at home (AOR = 2.77, 95% CI: (1.41, 5.46)), not knowing risks associated with pre-lacteal feeding (AOR = 3.25, 95% CI: (1.72, 6.15)) and perceiving pre-lacteal feeding as beneficial (AOR = 9.56, 95% CI: (4.45, 20.52)) were factors significantly associated with practice pre-lacteal feeding practices. Conclusion. Significant proportions of mothers were practicing pre-lacteal feeding in the study area. Late initiation of breastfeeding, home delivery, not knowing risks of prelacteal feeding, and perceiving pre-lacteal feeding as beneficial were contributing factors for practicing of pre-lacteal feeding. Therefore, promoting institutional delivery and timely initiation of breastfeeding would reduce prelacteal feeding in Kersa district.

Introduction: The hospital admissions load and how long each patient will stay in the hospital should be known to prevent the overwhelming of the health system during coronavirus disease 2019 era. Even though the length of hospital stay could vary due to different factors, the factors that affect the stay are not well characterized yet, particularly in the resource-limited settings. Knowing the time spent by the coronavirus disease 2019 patients in the hospital and its associated factors are important to prioritize mobilizing resources, such as beds, pharmacological and non-pharmacological supplies, and health personnel. Therefore, this study was intended to determine the median and identify factors associated with the length of hospital stay among coronavirus disease 2019 cases. Methods: A facility-based cross-sectional study design was implemented on 394 randomly selected hospitalized patients. Epidata Version 3.1 software was used for data entry, and further analysis was done using Stata version 14.2 software. Frequencies, median with interquartile range, and chi-square test were performed. A logistic regression model was used to identify the association between outcome and explanatory variables. The statistical significance was declared at p-value of less than 0.05 at 95% confidence interval. Results: The analysis was done for a total of 394 cases admitted for coronavirus disease 2019. The median age of the study participants was 40 years with interquartile range of 28–60 years. The median length of hospital stay was 12 days with the interquartile range of 8–17 days. The patients presented with shortness of breathing (AOR = 2.74, 95% confidence interval: 1.33–5.66), incident organ failure (AOR = 3.65, 95% confidence interval: 1.15–11.58), increased leukocyte count (AOR = 0.95; 95% confidence interval: 0.91–0.99), and blood urea nitrogen (AOR = 0.98, 95% confidence interval: 0.97–0.99) had a significant association with prolonged hospital stay. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the proportion of patients stayed above the median hospital stay of the total patients was 185 (46.9%) with the median length of 12 (interquartile range = 8–17) days. Patients presented with difficulty of breathing, had incident organ failure, had decreased leukocyte, and blood urea nitrogen level should be estimated to stay longer in the hospital. Hence, patients with prolonged hospital length of stay associating factors should be expected to consume more pharmacological and non-pharmacological resources during hospital care receiving.