Nutritional Status of Adolescent Girls from Rural Communities of Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Background: Addressing the nutritional needs of adolescents could be an important step towards breaking the vicious cycle of intergenerational malnutrition. Objective: Assess nutritional status of rural adolescent girls. Design: Cross-sectional. Methods: Anthropometric and socio-demographic information from 211 adolescent girls representing 650 randomly selected households from thirteen communities in Tigray was used in data analysis. Height-for-age and BMI-for-age were compared to the 2007 WHO growth reference. Data were analyzed using SAS, Version 9.1. Results: None of the households reported access to adolescent micronutrient supplementation. The girls were shorter and thinner than the 2007 WHO reference population. The cross-sectional prevalence of stunting and thinness were 26.5% and 58.3%, respectively. Lack of latrine facilities was significantly associated with stunting (p = 0.0033) and thinness (p <0.0001). Age was strong predictor of stunting (r(2) = 0.8838, p <0.0001) and thinness (r(2) = 0.3324, p <0.0001). Conclusion: Undernutrition was prevalent among the girls. Strategies to improve the nutritional status of girls need to go beyond the conventional maternal and child health care programs to reach girls before conception to break the intergenerational cycle of malnutrition. Further, carefully designed longitudinal studies are needed to identify the reasons for poor growth throughout the period of adolescence in this population. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2009; 23(1):5-11

Sero-prevalence and risk factors of hepatitis C virus infection among pregnant women in Bahir Dar city, Northwest Ethiopia: cross sectional study

Viral hepatitis during pregnancy is associated with high risk of maternal complications and has become a leading cause of fetal death. So the main objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of hepatitis C viral infections among pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic in Bahir Dar health institutions, Ethiopia. This was institutional based cross-sectional study that included 318 pregnant women who attended the antenatal clinic in Bahir Dar health institutions from January 2013 to June 2013. Appropriate data was gathered from study participants. Sero-prevalence of hepatitis C virus was determined by detecting immunoglobulin of HCV using ELISA kit. Data was entered and analyzed with SPSS version 16 statistical software. The overall prevalence of hepatitis C virus among pregnant women was 0.6%. None of the expected risk factors had significant outcome. In conclusion, prevalence of the Hepatitis C virus among pregnant women attending in Bahir Dar health institutions was low and expected variables were not statistically significant

Khat use in persons with mental illness in Southwest Ethiopia: a cross- sectional study

Yosef Zenebe, Garumma Tolu Feyissa and Wolfgang Krah

Alcohol use disorders and its associated factors among psychiatric Outpatients in Jimma University Specialized Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia

Background: Worldwide, alcohol consumption caused 3.8 percent of all deaths and 4.5 percent of the total burden of disease in 2004. Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) are also a burden for individuals and society in Ethiopia. It is important to identify problematic alcohol use at an early stage, as this provides professionals with the opportunity to take preventive measures and, hence, reduce the problems caused by this consumption. The high prevalence of substance abuse problems among persons with psychiatric disorders calls for more effective alcohol and drug use assessment in psychiatric settings. Objectives: To assess prevalence of alcohol use disorders and its associated factors among psychiatric outpatients in Jimma University specialized hospital (JUSH) Methods: A university hospital based cross-sectional study of 365 psychiatric outpatients was conducted from 1st to 15th August 2013 in Jimma zone, south-west Ethiopia. The data were collected by interviewing all psychiatric outpatients coming for treatment at JUSH by using structured questionnaire. An alcohol use disorder was assessed using Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). All variables associated with AUDs with a p value ≤ 0.25 were included in the final multivariable model. Results: The estimated prevalence rate of AUD was 38.9%, with 23.3% hazardous drinking, 5.8% alcohol abuse and 9.8% alcohol dependence. In the final multiple logistic regression model AUD was significantly associated with Gender, Religion, Frequency of going to worship places and Cigarette smoking. Being female gender was less likely to develop AUD. Those who were orthodox religion followers, those who never went to the worship places and those who smoke cigarettes were more likely to have AUD. Conclusions: The high prevalence of AUDs detected in our facility-based survey of psychiatric outpatients in Ethiopia implies the need to design effective screening tools and feasible interventions for AUDs.Zenebe Y, Negash A, Feyissa GT and Krahl

Male Partner&apos;s Involvement in HIV Counselling and Testing and Associated Factors among Partners of Pregnant Women in Gondar Town, Northwest Ethiopia

Background. Despite the existence of several programmes promoting male involvement in HIV counselling and testing during their wife&apos;s pregnancy as a part of PMTCT, few men have heeded the call. The aim of this study was to assess male partner&apos;s involvement in HCT and its associated factors. Methods. This study was based on institution based cross-sectional study design that used systematic random sampling technique. A total of 416 partners were interviewed in the data collection. Multivariable logistic regression model was fitted to identify the independent predictors. Result. In this study, the prevalence of male involvement in HCT was found to be 40.1% (95% CI: 35.3%-44.7%). The independent predictors of male involvement were partners who were younger, were cohabitant, were with multigravida wives, were knowledgeable on route of mother-to-child transmission, and discussed HCT. Conclusion. The prevalence of male involvement in HCT was found to be suboptimal compared to similar studies in Ethiopia. There is a need of interventions on partners who are older, separated, and with lower gravidity wife. Awareness creation campaign should also be created on the route of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and on the importance of discussion with wife

Micro water harvesting for climate change mitigation: Trade-offs between health and poverty reduction in Northern Ethiopia

Water harvesting is an important tool for mitigating the adverse effects of climate change. This report investigates the trade-offs between health and poverty reduction by considering the impacts of water harvesting on health in Tigray region, northern Ethiopia. In particular, we assess the prevalence of malaria in association with ponds and wells. Moreover, the determinants of malaria incidence are explored with multivariate analysis. Additionally, we investigate people¿s willingness to pay (WTP) for improved malaria control using a contingent valuation method (CVM). In particular, we applied a double-bounded dichotomous choice CV surveys to elicit households¿ WTP for improved health services to control malaria. With interval regression, the WTP was explained as a function of household characteristics, health and health service conditions, and village level factors. The malaria prevalence rate is very high, more than 30 percent in low land communities, although rates are higher after rainy season. This suggests that ponds and wells are important factors in determining the prevalence of malaria. Better conditions of housing and toilet type, availability of bed nets reduce incidence. Pond and well ownership affects the WTP for improved malaria control in a negative and positive way respectively indicating differences in their economic attractiveness. WTP decreases with altitude and thus malaria incidence. Education and household asset holding generally increases WTP for improved health services. The results suggest that valuation results on household¿s WTP in poor economies may be underestimated because of cash constraint. Consequently, alternative payment vehicles in eliciting households¿ WTP have to be considered. Similarly, the estimated mean WTP for the external health cost of wells and ponds may be underestimated. In our case, ponds and wells are not fully exploited, as our results suggest that they do not contribute to household income or welfare. In that case, the presence of ponds and wells pose high external costs to the econom

Mitochondria-dependent signalling pathway are involved in the early process of radiation-induced bystander effects

Bystander effects induced by cytoplasmic irradiation have been reported recently. However, the mechanism(s) underlying, such as the functional role of mitochondria, is not clear. In the present study, we used either mtDNA-depleted (ρ0) AL or normal (ρ+) AL cells as irradiated donor cells and normal human skin fibroblasts as receptor cells in a series of medium transfer experiments to investigate the mitochondria-related signal process. Our results indicated that mtDNA-depleted cells or normal AL cells treated with mitochondrial respiratory chain function inhibitors had an attenuated γ-H2AX induction, which indicates that mitochondria play a functional role in bystander effects. Moreover, it was found that treatment of normal AL donor cells with specific inhibitors of NOS, or inhibitor of mitochondrial calcium uptake (ruthenium red) significantly decreased γ-H2AX induction and that radiation could stimulate cellular NO and O2•− production in irradiated ρ+ AL cells, but not in ρ0 AL cells. These observations, together with the findings that ruthenium red treatment significantly reduced the NO and O2•− levels in irradiated ρ+ AL cells, suggest that radiation-induced NO derived from mitochondria might be an intracellular bystander factor and calcium-dependent mitochondrial NOS might play an essential role in the process