BackgroundLiteratures on prevalence and factors associated with malnutrition among peoples living with HIV/AIDS are limited in Ethiopia and not well documented either. The proper implementation of nutritional support and its integration with the routine highly active antiretroviral therapy package demands a clear picture of the magnitude and associated factors of malnutrition. The objective of this study is, therefore, to assess the prevalence and factors associated with malnutrition among peoples living with HIV/AIDS.MethodsInstitution based cross sectional study was conducted in Dilla University referral Hospital including adult HIV patients who were in highly active anti retroviral therapy. Interview administered questionnaires were used to collect data on socio demographic factors. Besides, HIV related clinical information was extracted from anti retro viral therapy data base and clinical charts. The nutritional status of the patients was determined by Body Mass Index (BMI) where BMI < 18kg/m2 was defined as malnutrition according to World Health Organization (WHO). Binary logistic regression was used to assess association between different risk factors and malnutrition. Confidence interval of 95% was considered to see the precision of the study and the level of significance was taken at α <0.05.ResultsA total of 520 patients were included in the analysis. The overall prevalence of malnutrition was 12.3% (95% CI 9.5–15.0). After full control of all variables; unemployment (OR = 3.61, 95% CI: 3.6 − 7.76), WHO clinical stage four (OR = 12.9, 95% CI: 2.49− 15.25), gastrointestinal symptoms (OR = 5.3, 95% CI: 2.56 − 10.78) and previous (one) opportunistic infection (OR = 3.1, 95% CI 2.06 − 5.46), and two & above previous opportunistic infections (OR = 4.5, 95% CI: 3.38 − 10.57) were significantly associated with malnutrition. However, moderately poor economic condition was found to be protective factor for malnutrition (OR = 0.4, 95% CI: 0.14 − 0.95).ConclusionUnemployment, WHO clinical AIDS stage four, one & more number of previous opportunistic infections and gastrointestinal symptoms were found to be important risk factors for malnutrition among People Living with HIV/AIDS. From this study it has been learnt that nutritional programs should be an integral part of HIV/AIDS continuum of care. Furthermore, it needs to improve household income of PLHIV with employment opportunity and to engage them in income generating activities as well.

Background: HIV infection and Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) has been associated with metabolic syndrome (MS). The prevalence of MS varies substantially between populations and is not yet well-known in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), including Ethiopia. The current study aims to estimate and evaluate the magnitude of MS among ART exposed and ART naïve HIV-infected patients. Methods: A comparative cross-sectional design was employed among the randomly chosen PLHIVs from two hospitals and two health centers, found in the Gedeo zone, southern-Ethiopia. Data collection was run beginning from December 29th, 2017 up to January 22nd − 2019, using the WHO steep tool; eventually, the completed data entered into Epidata (V-3.1) and exported to SPSS (V − 22) for analysis. The revised international diabetes federation criterion was used to define MS and its components. The mean, standard deviations and proportions were used as a descriptive summary. Categorical data and the proportion of MS in the two groups were compared using binary logistic regression, and results were reported statistically significant with p-value is less than 5%. Results: A total of 633 (n = 422 on ART and n = 211 ART-naive) PLHIVS was involved, with an overall response rate of 96.2%. The cumulative proportion of MS was 42.5%(95% CI: 39.2-45.7), with 43.4%(95% CI: 39.1-47.4) among ART exposed and 40.8% (95% CI: 35.5-46.0) among ART naïve patients (P > 0.005). However, the difference was not statistically significant and signified that ART has no association with an increased proportion of MS. Conclusion: Overall this study demonstrated the presence of an elevated degree of overall MS among PLHIVs. Besides, although the difference was not statistically significant, a relatively higher proportion of MS was realized in the ART exposed than ART naïve groups. Implicated that at the time of the entire test and treatment approaches employed in this target group, routine screening of MS incorporated through HIV care and management system will be a vibrant action.

Background. High fertility remains one of the most important public health issues hampering the health and welfare of mothers and the survival of their children in developing nations. In Ethiopia, the high fertility rate has been seen for a long historical period with some pocket areas of high fertility still showing poor improvement. Hence, this study was aimed at determining the magnitude of high fertility status (number of children ever born alive≥5) and associated factors among women of the reproductive age group in Wonago district. Methods. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted on randomly selected 512 women in Wonago district. Data were collected using a pretested structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Data was entered into EpiData version 3.1 and then analyzed by SPSS version 25. Logistic regression was used to analyze the data, and the adjusted odds ratio with the 95% confidence interval was computed, and a significant association was declared at p value ≤ 0.05. Result. This study revealed that 354 (69.1%) of the respondents have high fertility. High fertility is independently associated with residing in rural area [AOR=4.88, 95% CI: 3.21, 7.86], desire for children [AOR=6.97, 95% CI: 3.24, 11.40], history of under-five child mortality [AOR =5.32, 95% CI: 2.59, 8.43], poor knowledge of contraception [AOR=2.67, 95% CI: 1.66, 4.04], and low wealth tertile [AOR=2.21, 95% CI: 1.51, 3.58]. On the other hand, women with age at first birth above 18 years [AOR=0.34, 95% CI: 0.17, 0.68] and those with birth interval≥24 months [AOR=0, 26, 95% CI: 0.14, 0.49] were less likely to have high fertility. Conclusion and Recommendation. The substantial number of women in the study area has high fertility status far away from the country’s costed implementation plan of reducing the total fertility rate to 3.0. Considering these, much is needed to be done among poor, rural residents, who have not yet attained their desired number of children, and on enhancing the knowledge of mothers towards contraceptive methods.

Background: Intensive access to antiretroviral therapy improved the prognosis of HIV. As a result, a non-communicable disease risk marker known as metabolic syndrome (MS) has emerged. It is a public health issue in sub-Saharan Africa including Ethiopia. However, there is little literature on predictors of MS among people living with HIV (PLHIVs) in the study area context. Purpose: To identify predictors of metabolic syndrome among PLHIVs, Gedeo Zone, Southern-Ethiopia. Methods: Health institutions-based unmatched case-control study was conducted. All HIVinfected adult persons who are receiving routine care in the randomly selected two hospitals and two health centers of the Gedeo zone, southern Ethiopia were involved in the study, conducted from December 29 th , 2017, to January 22 nd , 2019. PLHIVs diagnosed with MS using ATP III criteria were considered as a case, and subjects free of MS in the survey were enrolled as controls. Binary logistic regression was employed to identify predictors of MS. Results: A total of 633 (139 cases and 494 controls) PLHIVs were included in the study. The multivariable analysis result found that age (AOR=1.09, 95% CI (1.05-1.12)); educational status being completed secondary school (AOR=0.22, 95% CI (0.02-0.42)); occupational status being of students (AOR=0.11, 95% CI (0.24-0.51)); wealth index being in the middle quintile (AOR=0.22, 95% CI (0.06-0.79)); ART status exposed to ART (AOR=3.07, 95% CI (1.37-6.89)); total physical activity state being physically active (AOR=0.36, 95% CI (0.16-0.79)), and engaged in low levels physical activity (AOR=3.83, 95% CI (1.46-10.05)) were the factors significantly associated with MS. Conclusion: While education, occupation, wealth index, antiretroviral therapy status, total physical activity, and lower physical activity levels were concluded by the study as modifiable predictors of metabolic syndrome, age was found as a non-modifiable independent risk of metabolic syndrome. There is a need for an ongoing effort to realize an integrated care plan that addresses both the routine care and regular screening programs to reduce the risks associated with MS and its traits in these subjects.

BackgroundMetabolic syndrome (MS) among people living with HIV (PLHIVs) is a global public health issue. However, there is no primary data about predictors of MS in the SSA and Ethiopia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine predictors of MS, among PLHIVs in the Gedeo-Zone,Southern-Ethiopia.MethodsUnmatched case-control study approach, among PLHIVs who served at randomly chosen two hospitals and health centers in the zone, in between (December 29th-2017 and January 22nd-2019) was done. WHO-steps tools were used to gather the data, finally handled with (Epidata-V-3.1 and SPSS-V-22) software’s. Lastly, using a multivariable conditional-LR-model, 4-models with AOR (95%CI) were computed to arrived at the final model, and then variables accepted as significant at (p-value < 0.05)level. ResultOverall, 633 PLHIVs (139 cases and 494 controls) were included in the analysis. The leading factors associated with MS were Age(>/=45years-old)(AOR=4.0,95%CI: 1.4-11.9), completed secondary school education (AOR=0.1,95% CI:0.01-0.5), un-employed(a home-maker AOR=0.1,95%CI:0.03-0.7 vs able to work AOR=0.1,95%CI:0.06-0.5)),Antiretroviral-therapy-exposed(AOR=0.1,95%CI:1.0-8.5),WHO-stage(>/=III)(AOR=4.4,95% CI:1.4-13.4), total physically activity (AOR=0.1,95% CI:0.04- 0.35), history of blood sugar measured (AOR=10.7,95%CI:3.3-34.6), elevated waist-circumference(AOR=6.9,95%CI:2.5-18.7),raised body mass index(AOR=5.4 95% CI: 1.6,18.4),fasting-glucose(AOR=29.3,95%CI:10.0-85.4),raisedtriglyceride(AOR=4.8,95%CI:2.0-11.3), and low high density lipoprotein(AOR=12.3 95% CI: 5.2,29.3). ConclusionThe finding implicated, the significance of planning intervention actions that targets the above factors in to account.