The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of alcohol use among women attending Antenatal Care in Gedeo zone rural health centers (Southern Ethiopia). This was a cross-sectional study conducted among randomly selected 718 pregnant women attending Antenatal Care. Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test-C was used to assess alcohol consumption. Variables with p-values of < 0.05 in the multivariable logistic regression were considered as having a statistically significant association with alcohol use. Results: The prevalence of alcohol use among pregnant women attending antenatal care service was 8.1% with 95% CI (6.3-10.0). Unplanned pregnancy [AOR = 2.12, 95% CI (1.20, 3.73)], abortion history [AOR = 2.40, 95% CI (1.16, 4.96)], pre pregnancy alcohol use [AOR 2.17, 95% CI (1.18, 4.00)] and mental distress [AOR = 3.50, 95% CI (1.99, 6.15)] were variables found to have a statistically significant association with alcohol use. This calls a holistic and multi modal approach for the prevention, early identification and intervention of alcohol use during pregnancy. More emphasis should also be given for pregnant women with unplanned pregnancy, history of abortion, pre pregnancy alcohol use and mental distress.

Background: Stunting and anemia are long-standing public health challenges which adversely affects the cognitive development and physical wellbeing of children in low income settings. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of stunting and anemia among 6-23 months old children in Damot Sore District, Southern Ethiopia. Methods: Cross-sectional survey was conducted among 477 children aged 6-23 months, which were living in Damot Sore District, in April 2017. A multistage sampling technique was used. Villages were randomly selected and systematic random sampling method was used to select study participants. Data on socio-demographic, anthropometric, dietary, blood samples for hemoglobin were collected. Data were entered into EPI Data V. 3.1 and exported into SPSS Version 21.0 for analysis. A principal component analysis (PCA) was done to generate wealth score of households. Binary logistic regression model was used to identify factors associated with the outcome variables (stunting and anemia) separately, those variables having less than a p-value of 0.25 were chosen as candidate for multivariable analyses and finally multivariable logistic regression model was used to identify independent variables of each outcomes, with statistical significance set at p < 0.05 (95% confidence interval (CI)). Results: Out of 477 children studied, 31.7% were stunted and 52% were anemic. In the multivariable analyses, the number of under five children within a household (AOR = 4.18, 95% CI: 2.65-6.57), drinking water from unsafe source (AOR = 4.08, 95% CI: 1.33-12.54) and anemia (AOR = 3.13, 95% CI 2.00-4.92) were factors significantly associated with stunting. On the other hand, independent variables of anemia were early initiation of complementary feeding (AOR = 2.96, 95% CI: 1.23-4.85), poor dietary diversity (AOR = 2.95, 95% CI: 1.78-4.91), poor breast feeding practice (AOR = 2.94, 95% CI: 1.63-5.32) and stunting (AOR = 3.65, 95% CI: 2.15-6.19). Conclusion: This study revealed higher level of stunting and anemia among children aged 6-23 months than WHO (world health organization) criteria of public health importance. Sustainable promotion of diversified diet, optimal complementary feeding, optimal and complementary breast feeding practices, improving sanitation infrastructure are measures needed to tackle these severe public health challenges.

Background: COVID-19 first broke out in China, Hubei province on December 29, 2019, since then it took hundreds of thousand lives worldwide. Although all countries are taking varying degrees of measures to curb the dissemination, the virus is still spreading rapidly in all parts of the world. Adherence of people for COVID-19 precaution measures is one of the most important factors which determine the effectiveness of curbing the spread. However, without having a good attitude, the adherence of people toward precaution measures could be challenging. Therefore, this study aims to assess the attitude, practice, and associated factors of Gedeo zone of Southern Ethiopia region residents toward COVID-19 and its prevention. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 600 Gedeo zone residents of Southern Ethiopia. Bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regression were used to determine the association between dependent and independent variables. An adjusted odds ratio with 95% CI was used to show the strength of association. P-value<0.05 was used to decide a statistically significant association. Results: Most of the study participants (90.3%) have a good attitude toward COVID-19 and its prevention. Being a younger age group (AOR=3.82, 95% CI=1.76-19.07), having a diploma and above (AOR=2.53, 95% CI=1.15-7.50), having a chronic medical illness (AOR=2.73, 95% CI=1.01-7.44), and using television/radio as a source of information (AOR=2.65, 95% CI=1.27-5.54) were significantly associated with a good attitude toward COVID-19. On the other hand, only 20% of the study participants had good practice toward COVID-19 prevention. Educational status (P-value=0.00), occupation (P-value=0.01), and having a chronic medical illness (P-value=0.03), and use of religious teaching as information sources (P-value=0.02) were among the factors associated with good practice toward COVID-19 infection. Conclusion: We conclude that, despite the presence of a good attitude in the majority of respondents, much work is needed to improve the poor practice of COVID-19 preventive measures.

Background. Mental disorder is a global burden that affects all groups of people. Young people, particularly college/university students, are more vulnerable to common mental disorders than the general population. Thus, students may use khat to gain immediate relief from their psychological distress which may worsen again after longer time of chewing. In Ethiopia, there are studies showing discrepant and inconsistent results of common mental disorder among college/university students. Therefore, this review sought to determine the prevalence of common mental disorder and its association with khat chewing among Ethiopian college/university students. Methods. Different kinds of literature were searched from the databases of Google Scholar, PubMed/Medline, ScienceDirect, and PsycINFO. A total of 10 primary studies which report the prevalence of common mental disorder among Ethiopian college/university students were included in the review. The data were extracted using a standardized data extraction format prepared in Microsoft Excel. STATA version 14 statistical software was used for analysis. Cochran's Q test statistics and I 2 test were used to assess heterogeneity. A random effects meta-analysis model was used to estimate the pooled prevalence of common mental disorder due to the variability of the studies. Lastly, the association between common mental disorder and khat chewing was conducted. Results. The pooled prevalence of common mental disorder among Ethiopian college/university students was 37.73% (95% CI: 30.43, 45.03). The subgroup analysis showed the highest [51.9% (95% CI: 30.19, 73.70)] and lowest [33.28% (95% CI: 19.95, 46.60)] prevalences of common mental disorder among Ethiopian college/university students found in Amhara and South Nation Nationality and People regions, respectively. The pooled effect (odds ratio) of khat chewing on common mental disorder was 2.01 (95% CI: 1.38, 2.95). Conclusions. In our review, it is found that more than onethird of college/university students suffered from common mental disorder. Khat chewers were found to be twofolds more vulnerable to develop common mental disorder than nonchewers.

Background: Intestinal obstruction is the most common surgical emergency worldwide. Intestinal obstruction continues to remain a challenge to surgeons despite advances in the field of medicine, surgical technique and accounts for high mortality ranges from 3% to 30% all over the world. Objective: The study aimed to assess management outcome and its associated factors among surgically treated intestinal obstruction cases, at Dilla University Referral Hospital 2020 GC. Method: Hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted on all cases surgically managed for intestinal obstruction, at Dilla University Referral Hospital from November, 1/2016 up to November, 30/2019. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire by trained data collectors. The collected data was checked for its completeness and entered into epidata version 3.1 then exported to SPSS version 26 for cleaning and analysis. The odds ratio along with 95%CI was estimated to measure the strength of the association. Statistical significance was declared at p-value < 0.05. Result: 258 cases were included in this study. From these, 223 (86.4%) cases have favorable surgical management outcomes of intestinal obstruction. Of 35 cases with unfavorable outcome, the most common postoperative complication occurred was surgical site Infection followed by post-operative pneumonia. A total of 4.7% of postoperative deaths were documented as unfavorable surgical management outcomes. Fever, length of illness, comorbidity, intraoperative bowel condition, bowel resection was done and length of hospital stay after operation were independent significantly associated factors with the surgical management outcome of intestinal obstruction. Conclusion: The unfavorable management outcome of patients with IO who treated surgically at the study area was high. Assessing co-morbidity, fluid resuscitation, administration of prophylactic antibiotics before operation and properly applying infection prevention protocol are some of the activities that need emphasis in intestinal obstruction management. Highlights