Skin-to-skin contact (SSC) is one of the critical components of kangaroo mother care (KMC), which is an intervention to enhance the survival of low birth weight (LBW) and/or premature infants in low-income settings. Chest-to-chest (CC) contact has been practiced widely; however, mothers face practical challenges to continuously provide CC-SSC. Hence, we assessed the efficacy of chest-to-back (CB) SSC as an alternative to CC-SSC in regulating body temperature for LBW and/or premature babies in Ethiopia. We applied a noninferiority clinical trial among LBW and/or premature infants admitted to a referral hospital neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Ethiopia. The study randomized the infants into two crossover arms; arm 1 applied first CB-SSC followed by CC-SSC, and arm 2 applied first CC-SSC followed by CB-SSC. The outcome measure was a change in skin temperature. We used a linear mixed-effect model for analysis. The result showed no statistically significant difference in the mean temperature between the comparison arms. In conclusion, we found that the CB-SSC was not inferior to the CC-SSC in regulating body temperature of the babies. Thus, CB-SSC can be further investigated as an alternative to CC-SSC in the kangaroo care model in low-income settings.

Background: Diabetes self-care practice is essential to control illness. One's ability to manage diabetic self-care is influenced by a variety of circumstances. The Health Belief Model is critical for comprehending and designing context-specific strategies for this purpose. Therefore, this study aimed to assess self-care practice of patients with diabetes mellitus using the health belief model. Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted from March to May, 2021 at Adama Hospital Medical College and Asella Teaching and Referral Hospitals. A total of 420 diabetic patients were consecutively included in the study. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 20. Binary and multiple logistic regression models were fitted to identify the factors associated with self-care practices. Adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval and p-value of 0.05 or less was used to indicate statistical significance. Results: Among the respondents nearly half, 48.1% (43.6, 53.1), were reported practicing good diabetes self-care. Respondents above high school (AOR=2.19, 95% CI= 1.09, 4.36), retired respondents (AOR=0.24, 95% CI=0.11, 0.50), those with no history of forgetting to take their medication (AOR=1.61, 95% CI=1.04, 2.66), those with good knowledge (AOR=1.81, 95% CI= 1.09, 3.01), respondents with moderate perceived susceptibility (AOR=0.42, 95% CI= 0.18, 0.98), high perceived severity (AOR= 0.33, 95% CI=0.19, 0.57), and a higher perceived barrier (AOR= 0.44, 95% CI= 0.24, 0.81) showed a significant association with diabetes self-care practices. Conclusions: Almost half of the participants practiced good self-care. Educational status, occupation, those with a history of forgetting to take their treatment, having good knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, and barrier were significantly associated. Therefore, healthcare professionals and hospital administrators need to increase patients' perceived susceptibility and the serious complication of diabetes. Also, perceived barriers to self-care should be evaluated, and patients should actively be involved in tailoring required modifications to their routines.

Chest-to-chest (CC) skin-to-skin contact (SSC) is a widely used method of SSC to prevent low birth weight (LBW) and/or premature babies with the risk of hypothermia. However, very recently, a study has also shown that the chest-to-back (CB) SSC is also useful for such a purpose. It is also evident that CC SSC enhances the cardiorespiratory performance of LBW and/or premature babies from the risk of cold stress. However, whether babies kept in CB SSC have the risk of clinically relevant decreases of oxygen saturation or critical changes of the baby heart rate comparing the two SSC methods has been studied hardly. Thus, we assessed the risk of oxygen desaturation and changes in babies’ heart rate among LBW and/or premature babies kept in CB SSC compared to the standard. In this study, we enrolled 46 LBW and/or premature babies born between 32 and 37 completed weeks of gestation. We used a parallel-group randomized controlled clinical trial. Peripheral arterial blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) and heart rate (HR) were measured using an OxiMaxN-600X Pulse Oximeter. We transformed these measurements into stability of the cardiorespiratory system in premature infant (SCRIP) scores. We applied a generalized estimating equation model to analyze the data. No statistically significant difference was observed between babies kept in CB SSC compared to babies kept in CC SSC in either blood oxygen saturation or heart rate ( P > 0.05 ). Thus, the CB SSC can be used as one possible way to care for LBW and preterm babies in the kangaroo mother care. We suggest more studies before scaling up the approach in routine care.