BackgroundPneumonia, which is a form of acute lower respiratory tract infection, affects the lung parenchyma and destructs alveolar air space. Pneumonia is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in under-five children. It was estimated that pneumonia kills 900,000 under-five children each year worldwide. Approximately 172 deaths per 1,000 live births occur in sub-Saharan African countries, with pneumonia being the major cause. This study aimed to assess the prevalence and determinant factors of pneumonia inunder-five children in southern Ethiopia.MethodologyAn institutional cross-sectional study was employed. A total of 239 child–caregiver pairs were included. Data were collected by trained nurses using a semi-structured questionnaire. The collected data were checked for completeness, coded and entered into EPI data version 4.6, and exported to SPSS version 25 for analysis. Results were reported as the mean, frequency, and percentile. Logistic regression was employed to assess statistically significant predictors of pneumonia. Variables with a p-value <0.05 were considered statistically significant factors of pneumonia.ResultThe prevalence of pneumonia in the study area was 30%. Among the factors assessed, place of food cooking—inside the living room [adjusted odd ratio (AOR) = 5.79, 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.47–13.58], nonexclusive breastfeeding (AOR = 3.26, 95% CI: 1.42–7.52), vitamin A supplementation status (AOR = 5.62, 95% CI: 2.65–11.94), and vaccination status (AOR = 3.59, 95% CI: 1.49–8.66) were significantly associated with the occurrence of pneumonia in under-five children.ConclusionThis study showed that the prevalence of pneumonia was relatively higher in Arba Minch town than other parts of the country. Place of food cooking, nonexclusive breastfeeding, vitamin A supplementation status, and vaccination status of children were significant factors of pneumonia among under-five children. Enhancing caregivers’/mothers’ awareness of predicted factors was needed to reduce the incidence of childhood pneumonia and to enhance children's quality of health.

Background: The use of contraceptives has become prevalent among women in Ethiopia. Oral contraceptive use has been suggested to trigger changes in glucose metabolism, energy expenditure, blood pressure, and body weight, among the various populations and ethnic groups. Objective: To elucidate the pattern of fasting blood sugar (FBS), blood pressure and body mass index (BMI) among combined oral contraceptive (COC) pills users, taking into account other confounding factors including socioeconomic conditions and physical activity status. Methods: An institution based cross-sectional study design was employed. A total of 110 healthy women using pills were recruited as cases. Another 110 healthy women not using any hormonal contraceptives were recruited as matched controls. A study was conducted between October 2018 and January 2019. Fasting Capillary blood sample was collected from the study participants for the estimation of the FBS level. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures were measured and means arterial blood pressure was calculated for each participant. Body weight and height were measured to compute body mass index. Data obtained was entered and analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23 software packages. Results: FBS level in users was significantly increased compared to controls (88.55 ± 7.89 vs. 86.00 ± 9.85 in users and controls respectively, P = 0.025). There was a significant difference in mean arterial blood pressure of users compared to controls (88.2 ± 8.48 vs. 86.0 ± 6.74 respectively, P=0.04). The mean weight and body mass index of users were significantly increased (P = 0.03 and P = 0.003, respectively). Changes in mean fasting blood sugar level and mean weight of users were independent (P = 0.27 and P = 0.46) to the duration of use (3-12, 13-24 and ≥ 25 months). On the other hand, changes in mean body mass index and mean arterial blood pressure of users were dependent of the duration of use (P = 0.03 and P = 0.000 respectively). Conclusions: Overall, oral contraceptive pills use appears to cause a 2.9% increase in fasting blood glucose level, a 2.5% increase in mean arterial blood pressure and a 3.9% increase in body mass index among the users.

Acceptance of illness is regarded as an indicator of functioning and predictor of quality of life. However, quality of life of patients with epilepsy in sub-Saharan countries worsen because of low medication adherence, increased morbidity and mortality, and the stigmatization associated with the disease. This research is aimed at assessing the level of acceptance of illness of patients with epilepsy and associated quality of life in North-East Ethiopia. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted from January to June 2021 at the Debre Berhan Referral Hospital, North-East Ethiopia. A total of 78 patients with epilepsy aged more than 18 years were randomly selected and assessed using Quality of Life in Epilepsy Inventory 31 and acceptance of illness scale. In addition, authors owned questionnaire were used to evaluate the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the patients. P value < 0.05 at 95% confidence level was considered to be statistically significant in all the analysis. Result. The study participants’ age varied between 18 and 67 years with the mean age of 28.9 years. Phenobarbital was the most used (73.9%) antiepileptic drug, and 68.7% ( n = 66 ) of the patients seizure was controlled. 72.9% ( n = 70 ) of the patients had medium acceptance of illness (scored 20-30), while 17.7% ( n = 17 ) had low illness acceptance level (scored 8-19), and 9.4% ( n = 9 ) had high acceptance of illness (scored 31-40). The mean of overall acceptance of illness among epileptic patients was 21.04 ± 7.21 . The overall score of QOLIE-31 was 79.14 ± 25.46 , and the highest mean score was for cognitive ( 83.5 ± 27.1 ), while the lowest mean score was that of medication effect ( 72.7 ± 28.7 ). Five of the seven QOLIE-31 components correlated significantly with level of acceptance of illness. Cognitive domain ( r = 0.498 , p < 0.001 ) demonstrated the highest correlation followed by overall quality of life ( r = 0.489 , p < 0.001 ), seizure worry ( r = 0.433 , p < 0.001 ), energy/fatigue ( r = 0.342 , p < 0.001 ), and emotional well-being ( r = 0.278 , p < 0.001 ). Conclusion. Patients with epilepsy in the study area had medium acceptance of illness, and nearly half of them had mean and more than the mean quality of life. The patients’ acceptance of illness was significantly associated with overall quality of life, seizure worry, emotional well-being, and cognitive domain of the patients.

Background Malaria and HIV/AIDS are the two most common infections in sub Saharan Africa (SSA) and worldwide. HIV infected individuals in malaria endemic areas experience severe malaria episodes. The immunological basis of this clinical observation is unclear and the hematologic abnormalities such as anemia in malaria and HIV co infected patients were inconsistent from studies in the past. Ethiopia’s three-fourth of the landmass is malarious and HIV prevalence is high that significantly affect RBC indices and other hematologic profiles. Objective This study aimed to compare RBC indices and anemia in HIV patients’ co-infected with malaria and those HIV patients without malaria and correlates these with CD4 level. Methods A comparative cross-sectional study was employed on 103 malaria-HIV/AIDS co infected (MHC) and 103 HIV patients without malaria on HAART of the same ART centers in Bench Sheko Zone. Data was collected by structured questionnaire and blood samples were collected from both groups for malaria test and RBC indices measurement. Data was entered and checked in Epi-data and exported to IBM SPSS version 21 software packages for analysis. Results There were significant differences in Mean±SD of RBC indices between the two groups (P<0.001). RBC, Hgb, HCT and MCV were lower in MHC patients. In total study participants, significant positive correlation was observed between CD4 count with MCV, CD4 count with MCH and CD4 count with anemia. In the group of malaria-HIV co-infected, CD4 count with RBC and CD4 count with Hgb and in HIV without malaria CD4 count with MCV, CD4 count with MCH and CD4 count with MCHC were positively correlated. Overall anemia prevalence was 45.1%. Anemia prevalence in MHC (Malaria-HIV co-infected) was 63.4%. Anemia prevalence distribution among sex showed that 61.3% in female sex and anemia prevalence distribution among CD4 group showed 55.9% in patients with CD4 count of ≤500 cells/μl. Anemia in MHC patients was higher in those with CD4 count of ≤500 cells/μl (59.3%) while in OH (Only HIV infected) anemia prevalence was similar in those with CD4 count of ≤500 and ≥500 cells/μl (50%). There is significant difference in anemia in MHC and OH infected with different CD4 group (P<0.01). Conclusion There was a difference in RBC indices in both groups; RBC, Hgb, HCT and MCV were lower in MHC patients. There was positive correlation between CD4 counts with some RBC indices in combined both groups. However, there was positive correlation between CD4 counts with RBC and Hgb in malaria-HIV co-infected. The combined prevalence of anemia was higher and anemia in MHC was greater than OH infected patients.

BackgroundThe use of contraceptives has become prevalent among women in Ethiopia. Oral contraceptive use has been suggested to trigger changes in glucose metabolism, energy expenditure, blood pressure, and body weight, among various populations and ethnic groups.ObjectiveTo elucidate the pattern of fasting blood glucose, blood pressure, and body mass index among combined oral contraceptive pills users compared to controls.MethodsAn institution-based cross-sectional study design was employed. A total of 110 healthy women using combined oral contraceptive pills were recruited as cases. Another 110 healthy age and sex-matched women not using any hormonal contraceptives were recruited as controls. A study was conducted between October 2018 and January 2019. Data obtained was entered and analyzed using IBM SPSS version 23 software packages. One-way ANOVA was used to identify the variation of variables in relation to the duration of use of the drug. The P-value of &lt; 0.05 at the 95% confidence level was statistically significant.ResultsFasting blood glucose level among oral contraceptive users (88.55 ± 7.89 mg/dl) was higher than fasting blood glucose level among oral contraceptive non-users (86.00 ± 9.85 mg/dl) with a p-value of 0.025. The mean arterial pressure of oral contraceptive users (88.2 ± 8.48 mmHg) was relatively higher than their counterparts (86.0 ± 6.74 mmHg), with a p-value of 0.04. Comparatively the body weight and body mass index among oral contraceptive users were 2.5% and 3.9% higher than non-users with a p-value of 0.03 and 0.003, respectively(5). Utilization of oral contraceptive pills for prolonged period of time seemed to be a significant predictive factor for higher mean arterial pressure and body mass index with p &lt; 0.001and p &lt; 0.05 respectively.ConclusionsUse of combined oral contraceptives was associated with higher fasting blood glucose (+2.9%), mean arterial pressure (+2.5%), and body mass index (3.9%) compared to controls.