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ObjectiveTo determine the magnitude of quality of antenatal care and associated factors among pregnant women in Ethiopia.DesignA community-based cross-sectional study.SettingEthiopia.ParticipantsA total of 4757 weighted sample of pregnant women from 18 January 2016 to 27 June 2016, were included for this analysis.OutcomeQuality of antenatal care (ANC).MethodsOur analysis was based on secondary data using the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey. The quality of ANC was measured when all six essential components, such as blood pressure measurements, blood tests, urine tests, nutrition counselling, birth preparation advice during pregnancy and information on potential complications, were provided. Stata V.14 software was used for analysis. A multilevel mixed-effect logistic regression analysis was fitted. Adjusted OR (AOR) with 95% CIs was used to show the strength and direction of the association. Statistical significance was declared at a p value less than 0.05.ResultsThe magnitude of quality of ANC in Ethiopia was 22.48% (95% CI: 21.31% to 23.69%). Educational status; primary (AOR=1.34; 95% CI: 1.06 to 1.68) and secondary (AOR=2.46; 95% CI: 1.76 to 3.45), middle (AOR=1.31; 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.72) and rich (AOR=2.08; 95% CI: 1.59 to 2.72) wealth status, being married (AOR=2.34; 95% CI: 1.08 to 5.10) and four or more ANC (AOR=2.01; 95% CI: 1.67 to 2.40) were statistically significant associated factors of quality ANC in Ethiopia.ConclusionsThis study found that nearly only one in five pregnant women received quality ANC during pregnancy. To improve the quality of ANC in Ethiopia, Ministry of Health and health facilities are needed to increase financial support strategies that enable pregnant women from poor households to use health services and enhance pregnant women’s understanding of the significance of quality of ANC through health education. Additionally, Community health workers should also be placed on supporting unmarried pregnant women to have quality ANC.

BackgroundInappropriate feeding practices result in significant threats to child health by impaired cognitive development, compromised educational achievement, and low economic productivity, which becomes difficult to reverse later in life. There is minimal evidence that shows the burden and determining factors of inadequate dietary intake among children aged under 2 years in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the pooled magnitude, wealth-related inequalities, and other determinants of inadequate minimum dietary diversity (MDD) intake among children aged 6–23 months in the SSA countries using the recent 2010–2020 DHS data.MethodsA total of 77,887 weighted samples from Demographic and Health Survey datasets of the SSA countries were used for this study. The Microsoft Excel and STATA version 16 software were used to clean, extract, and analyze the data. A multilevel binary logistic regression model was fitted. The concentration index and curve were applied to examine wealth-related inequalities in the outcomes. P-value < 0.05 with 95% CI was taken to declare statistical significance.ResultsThe pooled magnitude of inadequate MDD intake among children aged 6–23 months in SSA was 76.53% (95% CI: 73.37, 79.70), ranging from 50.5% in South Africa to 94.40% in Burkina Faso. Individual-level factors such as women having secondary and above education (AOR = 0.66; 95% CI; 0.62, 0.70), being employed (AOR = 0.76; 95% CI; 0.72, 0.79), having household media exposure (AOR = 0.69; 95% CI; 0.66, 0.72), richest wealth (AOR = 0.46; 95% CI; 0.43, 0.50), having health institution delivery (AOR = 0.87;95% CI; 0.83, 0.91), and community-level factor such as living in upper middle-income country (AOR = 0.42; 95% CI; 0.38, 0.46) had a significant protective association, whereas rural residence (AOR = 1.29; 95% CI; 1.23, 1.36) has a significant positive association with inadequate MDD intake among children aged 6–23 months. Inadequate MDD intake among children aged 6–23 months in SSA was disproportionately concentrated on the poor households (pro-poor) (C = −0.24; 95% CI: −0.22, −0.0.26).Conclusion and RecommendationsThere is a high magnitude of inadequate minimum dietary diversity intake among children aged 6–23 months in SSA. Variables such as secondary and above maternal education, having an employed mother, having exposure to media, richest wealth, having health institution delivery, and living in the upper middle-income country have a significant negative association, whereas living in rural residence has a significant positive association with inadequate MDD intake. These findings highlight that to increase the MDD intake in the region, policy makers and other stakeholders need to give prior attention to enhancing household wealth status, empowering women, and media exposure.

Background Intention to use contraceptive methods has an overriding importance to better visualize the women’s future needs and more likely to translate it to actual behavior. It is therefore important to identify the motivating correlates such as education, women empowerment, as well as deterring factors like fear of side effects, infertility after contraceptive use, lack of knowledge regarding family planning methods among married women in countries with high fertility rates in sub-Saharan Africa. This helps to control family size, unintended pregnancies, and poor health outcomes for infants and mothers. Methods A secondary data analysis was performed using the recent Demographic and Health Surveys. A total weighted sample of 178,875 reproductive age women was included in this study. A multilevel mixed-effect binary logistic regression model was fitted. The odds ratios along with the 95% confidence interval were generated to identify the correlates of the intention to use contraceptives. A p-value less than 0.05 was declared as statistical significance. Results Overall, the intention to use contraception was 37.66% (95% CI, 37.44, 37.88). Whereas, the proportion of women who intend to use contraception was 59.20%, 53.30%, 42.32%, 37.88%, 37.63%, 35.25%, 31.32%, 20.64%, 20.30% in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Niger, Mali, DR. Congo, Nigeria, Angola, Gambia, and Chad respectively. Age; 15–24 (AOR = 3.72, 95% CI, 3.58, 3.86) and 25 − 24 years (AOR = 2.81, 95% CI, 2.74, 2.89), education of women; primary (AOR = 1.16, 95% CI, 1.13, 1.20), and secondary (AOR = 1.32, 95% CI, 1.27, 1.37), wealth index; middle (AOR = 1.15, 95% CI, 1.12, 1.18), rich (AOR = 1.28, 95% CI, 1.24, 1.32), number of living children 1–2 (AOR = 1.42, 95% CI, 1.37, 1.48), 3 or more (AOR = 1.77, 95% CI, 1.69, 1.85), age at cohabitation ≥ 18years (AOR = 1.37, 95% CI, 1.33, 1.40), heard family planning messages in the media (AOR = 1.47, 95% CI, 1.43, 1.50), history of ever terminated pregnancy (AOR = 1.13, 95% CI, 1.09, 1.17) and perceived distance to the health facility as not big problem (AOR = 1.16, 95% CI, 1.13, 1.19) were the correlates of intention to use contraceptives. Conclusion The finding of the current study demonstrates that the intention of contraceptive use among reproductive age women in high fertility countries in SSA was relatively low as compared to previous studies. Thus, each national authority, especially in Chad and Gambia would be keen to know the level of contraceptive use intentions for their respective region, the drivers of contraceptive use intention and to map priorities for behavioral change. Any intervention strategy that promotes intention of contraceptive use should consider these factors for better success. Future researchers interested in the area should also address qualitative variables like socio-cultural factors, which might have an effect on intention of contraceptive use.

Background Iron-rich food consumption has an invaluable effect for neonatal and fetal brain development as well as metabolic activities. Despite the public health importance of the consumption of iron-rich foods, there was no study, that assessed iron-rich food consumption in Rwanda. Therefore this study aimed to assess iron-rich food consumption and associated factors among children aged 6–23 months using Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey (RDHS). Methods Secondary data analysis was done using RDHS-2019/20. Total weighted samples of 2455 children aged 6–23 months were included. Data coding, cleaning, and analysis were performed using Stata 16. Multilevel binary logistic regression were performed to identify factors associated with iron-rich food consumption. Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with a 95% CI, and p-value <0.05 were used to declare statistical significance. Results The prevalence of good iron-rich food consumption was 23.56%(95% CI: 21.92,25.28). Northern province of Rwanda (AOR  =  0.26,95%CI: 0.15,0.46), mothers secondary education and above (AOR: 2.37, 95% CI: 1.41, 4.01), married mothers (AOR:1.31, 95% CI: 1.01,1.71), rich wealth status (AOR = 2.06, 95% CI: 1.48, 2.86), having post-natal visit (AOR = 1.45, 95% CI: 1.10,1.91), mothers media exposure (AOR: 1.75, 95% CI: 1.22, 2.52) and drugs given for intestinal parasite (AOR = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.04, 1.80) were associated with iron-rich food consumption. Conclusions This study shows that overall iron-rich foods consumption was low in Rwanda. The residing in the North province, mother’s secondary and higher educational status, married marital status, rich and middle wealth status, having media exposure, drugs given for intestinal parasites, and having child’s post-natal checkup were variables significantly associated with iron-rich food consumption. The region-based intervention will improve the consumption of iron-rich food. In addition, health policies and programs should target educating mothers/caregivers, encouraging parents to live together, improving their wealth status, working on mass media access by the women, and encouraging mothers post-natal checkups to improve iron-rich food consumption.