Unintended pregnancy and induced abortion in a town with accessible family planning services: The case of Harar in eastern Ethiopia

Introduction: It is a universally accepted fact that unintended pregnancy and births could have negative consequences for women, children, families and societies at large. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Harrar town in southeast Ethiopia where family planning services are relatively easily accessible. The study was carried out in nine kebeles (smallest administrative units), selected from three woredas (districts). A multistage sampling technique was used to select females in the reproductive age group 15-49 years for interview. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. Results: A total of 983 females aged 15-49 years were interviewed out of whom, 225 (33.3%) sexually active women reported that their most recent pregnancies were unintended. The prevalence of unintended childbirth among sexually active women constituted about 14.3% of the total while induced abortion was found to be 14.4 %. In multivariate analysis, teenagers (OR 4.2 95% CI 1.4,10, 5), those married at the age of less than 20 years (OR 2.1 95%CI 1.9, 4.7), and currently unmarried (OR 1.7 95% CI 1.2, 2.5) had a higher chance of experiencing unwanted pregnancy. Literate women were found to have a significantly higher chance of having induced abortion (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.4, 6.4). Conclusions: Unintended pregnancy was found to be a major reproductive health problem in the study area showing the high unmet need for family planning and thus deserves priority attention. Expanding access to family planning without regard for the provision of effective IEC, counseling and quality care may not have the expected benefits in this context. The Ethiopian Journal of Health Development Vol. 20 (2) 2006: 79-8

The prevalence of primary headache disorders in Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Knowledge of the epidemiology of primary headache disorders in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains very limited. We performed a population-based survey in rural and urban areas of Ethiopia, using methods similar to those of an earlier study in Zambia and tested in multiple other countries by Lifting The Burden. METHODS: In a cross-sectional survey we visited households unannounced in four regions of Ethiopia: the mostly urban populations in Addis Ababa and its environs and rural populations of selected districts in Oromia, Amhara and South Nations Nationalities and People's Regions States (SNNPRS). We used cluster-randomized sampling: within clusters we randomly selected households, and one adult member (18-65 years old) of each household. The HARDSHIP structured questionnaire, translated into the local languages, was administered face-to-face by trained interviewers. Demographic enquiry was followed by diagnostic questions based on ICHD-II criteria. RESULTS: From 2,528 households approached, 2,385 of 2,391 eligible members (1,064 [44.7%] male, 596 [25.0%] urban) consented to interview (participating proportion 99.8%). Headache in the preceding year was reported by 1,071 participants (44.9% [95% CI: 42.4-46.3]; males 37.7%, females 49.9%), and headache yesterday by 170 (7.1% [6.2-8.2]; males 45 [4.1%], females 125 [9.2%]). Adjusted for gender, age and habitation (urban/rural), 1-year prevalence of migraine was 17.7%, of tension-type headache (TTH) 20.6%, of all headache on ≥15 days/month 3.2%, and of probable medication-overuse headache (pMOH) 0.7%. The adjusted prevalence of headache yesterday was 6.4%. Very few cases (1.6%) were unclassifiable. All headache disorders were more common in females. TTH was less common in urban areas (OR: 0.3; p < 0.0001), but pMOH was very strongly associated (OR: 6.1; p < 0.0001) with urban dwelling. Education was negatively associated with migraine (OR: 0.5-0.7; p < 0.05) but (at university level) positively with pMOH (OR: 2.9; p = 0.067). Income above ETB 500/month showed similar associations: negatively with migraine (OR: 0.8; p = 0.035), positively with pMOH (OR: 2.1; p = 0.164). CONCLUSIONS: Findings for migraine and TTH in Ethiopia were quite similar to those from Zambia, another SSA country; pMOH was much less prevalent but, as in Zambia, essentially an urban problem. Primary headache disorders are at least as prevalent in SSA as in high-income western countries

Bodyweight Change and CarcassYield Performance of Somali Goats Fed with Groundnut Pod Hulls and a Mixture of Wheat Branand Mustard Seed Cake

The study was conducted at Kombolcha ATVET College, Eastern Ethiopia using 25 intact male yearling Somali goats weighing 18.4±1.5kg at the start of the experiment. The objectives of the study was to examine the effects of urea treated groundnut pod hulls and supplementation of wheat bran and mustard seed cake mixture at a ratio of 3:1, respectively at different levels on body weight change and carcass yield performance of Somali goats. A completely randomized block design was employed and the experimental animals were grouped in five blocks of five goats each based on their initial BW. The goats within a block were randomly assigned to one of the five diets. Treatment feeds consisted feeding of sole untreated groundnut pod hulls (UGNPH) (T1) adlibtum, sole urea treated (UTGNPH) (T2) adlibtum, and supplementation of the UGNPH with the concentrate mixture at graded levels of125g (T3), 250g (T4) and 375g DM/head/day (T5). Daily DM intake of UGNPH was higher (P&lt;0.001) in T1 (407.1 g/head/day) and T3 (388.7g/head/day) compared to T4 (331.5 g/head day) and T5 (272.1 g/head/day), whereas that of UTGNPH was higher (P&lt;0.001) for T2 (471.1 g/day/head) compared to all treatments. Total DM intake was higher (P&lt;0.001) in supplemented groups (T3, T4, and T5) compared to non-supplemented groups (T1and T2). Goats fed sole UGNPH (T1) and UTGNH (T2) lost BW at a rate of 31 and 6 g per day, respectively, whereas supplemented goats gained BW at a rate of 18.9(T3), 40.7(T4), and 53.3g(T5)per day. Goats supplemented with concentrate had higher (P&lt;0.001) weight of hot carcass and empty bodyweight (BW). Better dressing percentage was obtained (P&lt;0.01) in supplemented and UTGNPH group on empty and slaughter BW basis. The result of this experiment demonstrated that urea treatment increased intake of groundnut pod hulls and decreased body weight loss as compared to the UGNPH. We recommend supplementation with 375g DM/day/head of the concentrate mixture to UGNPH based diet for small scale goat fattening programs, since neither UGNPH nor UTGNPH provided sufficient nutrients for growing goats

Livelihood Strategies of Rural Women with Emphasis on Income Diversification and Demographic Adjustment in Central Ethiopia: The Case of Olonkomoi1, Oromia Region

This article explores some of the livelihood strategies of rural women with emphasis on an income diversification and demographic adjustment in Olonkomi locality in the context of rapid population growth. The data used in the study came from selected 150 households’ socio-economic and demographic survey, group discussions, and interview and other secondary sources. Results indicated that the population of Olonkomi and its locality was growing at a rate of about 2.4 percent per annum, which leads to limited access to the scarce land and other resources. As a result, many rural people in general and women in particular have adopted diversified livelihood strategies that could enable them partly cope with livelihood problems. Therefore, women have involved in casual and unregulated labor of income generating activities such as processing and selling local beverages, selling fire wood, making hand crafts, petty trading etc., although their impact on livelihood improvement was minimal due to poor access to credit from financial institutions, lack of skill and training, and scarce labor supplies in case of femaleheaded households. Observation of women, especially female-headed households who diversified their household income sources as a survival strategy were more notable. Fertility showed a declining trend though the change was small. The change emanated from the fact that considering adjustment of family size as a strategy to mitigate livelihood tragedy, about 27% of the rural women respondents began to limit the number of children they could bear in their reproductive age span of 15-49. Landless young people, especially females, used to move away from home to look for employment opportunities. However, migration could not bring significant change on the livelihood condition of thepeople. The small amount of remittance that the households received from migrants was an indicator of the situation that it could not make difference in the livelihood situation. Some of the rural households used to send grains to support some of the out-migrants. Despite the observed little improvements in rural livelihood situation, as a survival strategy and means of improving livelihood, the rural communities in general and female-headed households in particular engaged in various non-farm and off-farm activities, migrated to the closest towns and city and made demographic adjustment by limiting the number of new born children. The new strategies (non-farm activities and demographic adjustment) can bear fruits and improve rural livelihood situations provided the local and regional governments in collaboration with local communities and other stake holders manage to improve rural households’ access to land, physical and social infrastructure as well as provision of microfinance institutions.Key words: demographic adjustment, income diversification, livelihoodstrategies, Olonkom

Northern leaf blight response of elite maize inbred lines adapted to the mid-altitude sub-humid tropics

Productivity of maize (Zea mays L.) is curtailed by a number of stress factors, predominantly by diseases and insect pests. The Northern leaf blight disease of maize caused by Exserohilum turcicum (Pass.) Leonard and Suggs inflict significant yield losses in the humid tropical regions. The objectives of this study were to determine the leaf blight response of 50 elite maize inbred lines developed for the mid-altitude, sub-humid tropics and to select promising parents for resistance breeding. Inbred lines were evaluated in the field using a 5 × 10 alpha lattice design with three replications. Plants were artificially inoculated at the 4–6 leaf stages during 2011 and 2012. Data on disease severity and incidence, AUDPC and yields were recorded. Inbred lines had significant differences for E. turcicum reactions, and were classified into resistant, intermediate or susceptible categories. The mean disease severity ranged from 2.04% for the inbred line 136-a to 3.25% (Kuleni-C1-101-1-1-1). The upper leaf area infection of inbred lines 143-5-I and 136-a was 3.3%, while the line Kuleni-C1-101-1-1-1 displayed 100% infection. Further, 136-a developed the lowest AUDPC score at 238, whereas Kuleni-C1-101-1-1-1 had the maximum at 700. Overall, inbred lines CML202, 144-7-b, 139-5-j, 136-a, 30H83-7-1-1-1-2-1, ILoo’E-1-9-1-1-1-1-1 and 142-1-e, were identified as promising sources of resistance against E. turcicum. The selected elite inbred lines would be recommended for use in general varietal development, disease management and to enhance maize productivity, in the mid-altitude sub-humid tropics

Pattern and treatment outcome of patients with achalasia cardia after Modified Heller’s Myotomy: experience from Ethiopia

Background: Although achalasia condition occurs in males and females with equal frequency, there are studies reporting that there is a male predominance even in Ethiopia. There appears to be striking international variations with significant differences between countries with respect to prevalence, occurrence in different sex and age groups and clinical features. The main objective of this study was to determine the pattern of clinical presentation and demographic characteristics and to assess the surgical treatment outcome of patients with achalasia. Methods: This was a 5-year retrospective review of medical records and theatre operation register notes of patients operated for achalasia of cardia at Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Addis Ababa. Selected socio- demographic variables, clinical presentations, radiologic imaging, post-operative course and final outcome were recorded on a structured format. Data was entered, cleaned and edited using EPI info version 3.5.1 for windows and analyzed using SPSS version 15 for windows. Frequencies, percentages, Mann-Whitney U test and Chi-square test were applied to describe and compare the difference between sex, age and dysphagia scores. Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test was used to evaluate the surgical treatment outcome after patients underwent Modified Heller’s Myotomy (MHM). Results: A total of 46 patients’ records that were operated for achalasia were reviewed, of whom 56.5% were males, 52.2% were of younger age (52.2%) with a mean of 26.4 years (Range: 14 – 65 years). Thirty eight (82.6%) patients suffered from grade 3-4 dysphagia. Higher dysphagia score, with no significant statistical difference, was predominantly seen among the young (87.5%) and female (95%) patients. Severity of symptoms of dysphagia was significantly reduced after Modified Heller’s Myotomy (P<0.0001). Conclusion: Slight predominance of male sex and younger age group was found among patients operated for achalasia. Modified Heller’s Myotomy was found to be effective in alleviating symptoms of achalasia

Epidemiology of low back pain among nurses working in public hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background: Low back pain (LBP) related to Nursing Profession, is a very common public health problem throughout the world. Various risk factors have been implicated in the etiology and LBP is assumed to be of multi-factorial origin as individual, work-related and psychosocial factors can contribute to its development. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and to identify the risk factors of LBP among Nurses working in Addis Ababa City Public Hospitals, Ethiopia, in the year 2015. Addis Ababa University, Black-Lion (‘Tikur Anbessa’) Hospital-BLH, is the country’s highest tertiary level referral and teaching Hospital. The three departments in connection with this study: Radiology, Pathology and Orthopedics, run undergraduate and residency programs and receive referred patients from all over the country.Methods: A cross-sectional study with internal comparison was conducted throughout the period October-December, 2015. Sample was chosen by simple random sampling technique by taken the lists of Nurses from human resource departments as a sampling frame. A well-structured, pre-tested and selfadministered questionnaire was used to collect quantifiable information. The questionnaire included socio-demographic, back pain features, consequences of back pain, work-related and psychosocial factors. The collected data was entered in to epiinfo version 3.5.4 and was analyzed by SPSS. A probability level of 0.05 or less and 95% confidence level was used to indicate statistical significance. Ethical clearance was obtained from all respected administrative bodies, Hospitals and study participants.Results: The study included 395 Nurses and gave a response rate of 91.9%. The mean age was 30.6 (±8.4) years. Majority of the respondents were female (285, 72.2%). Nearly half of the participants (n=181, 45.8% (95% CI (40.8%- 50.6%))) were complained Low Back Pain. There were statistical significant association between Low Back Pain and working shift, physical activities at work; sleep disturbance and felt little pleasure by doing things.Conclusion: A high prevalence of Low Back Pain was found among Nurses working in Addis Ababa Public Hospitals. Recognition &amp; Preventive measures like providing resting periods should be taken to reduce the risk of Low Back Pain in Nurses working in Public hospitalsKeywords: LBP Risk factors, Low back pain, Nurses, Work-Shift, and Public Hospital

The Hagedorn temperature Revisited

The Hagedorn temperature, T_H is determined from the number of hadronic resonances including all mesons and baryons. This leads to a stable result T_H = 174 MeV consistent with the critical and the chemical freeze-out temperatures at zero chemical potential. We use this result to calculate the speed of sound and other thermodynamic quantities in the resonance hadron gas model for a wide range of baryon chemical potentials following the chemical freeze-out curve. We compare some of our results to those obtained previously in other papers.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

A Multivariate Logistic Distance Model for the Analysis of Multiple Binary Responses

We propose a Multivariate Logistic Distance (MLD) model for the analysis of multiple binary responses in the presence of predictors. The MLD model can be used to simultaneously assess the dimensional/factorial structure of the data and to study the effect of the predictor variables on each of the response variables. To enhance interpretation, the results of the proposed model can be graphically represented in a biplot, showing predictor variable axes, the categories of the response variables and the subjects’ positions. The interpretation of the biplot uses a distance rule. The MLD model belongs to the family of marginal models for multivariate responses, as opposed to latent variable models and conditionally specified models. By setting the distance between the two categories of every response variable to be equal, the MLD model becomes equivalent to a marginal model for multivariate binary data estimated using a GEE method. In that case the MLD model can be fitted using existing statistical packages with a GEE procedure, e.g., the genmod procedure from SAS or the geepack package from R. Without the equality constraint, the MLD model is a general model which can be fitted by its own right. We applied the proposed model to empirical data to illustrate its advantages.Multivariate analysis of psychological dat

Comparative Analysis of V-Akt Murine Thymoma Viral Oncogene Homolog 3 (AKT3) Gene between Cow and Buffalo Reveals Substantial Differences for Mastitis

AKT3 gene is a constituent of the serine/threonine protein kinase family and plays a crucial role in synthesis of milk fats and cholesterol by regulating activity of the sterol regulatory element binding protein (SREBP). AKT3 is highly conserved in mammals and its expression levels during the lactation periods of cattle are markedly increased. AKT3 is highly expressed in the intestine followed by mammary gland and it is also expressed in immune cells. It is involved in the TLR pathways as effectively as proinflammatory cytokines. The aims of this study were to investigate the sequences differences between buffalo and cow. Our results showed that there were substantial differences between buffalo and cow in some exons and noteworthy differences of the gene size in different regions. We also identified the important consensus sequence motifs, variation in 2000 upstream of ATG, substantial difference in the “3′UTR” region, and miRNA association in the buffalo sequences compared with the cow. In addition, genetic analyses, such as gene structure, phylogenetic tree, position of different motifs, and functional domains, were performed to establish their correlation with other species. This may indicate that a buffalo breed has potential resistance to disease, environment changes, and airborne microorganisms and some good production and reproductive traits