Background: Postoperative wound healing has been a problem which causes high mortality in the developing world; postoperative wound has been reported to cause devastating consequences and a measurable mortality. There is a limited number of published studies in Tanzania investigating Nursing practice on post-operative wound care in surgical wards at Muhimbili National Hospital, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania. This study assesses nursing practice on postoperative wound care by nurses in surgical wards at Muhimbili National Hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional study of surgical nurses was carried out through the use of randomly selected surgical wards at Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzania from September 2011 to July 2013. A multistage cluster sampling technique was used to obtain a suitable number of study participants. Data collection was done using a checklist from a convenient sample of 71 nurses in selected surgical wards. Results: The result indicates that a big number of the participants were female (76.5%) and those of the age group 25 to 34 years were 40.8%. Participants exceeding a half of the selected sample reported to have poor post-operative wound care practice (57.7%). In comparison, male participants scored higher, and had better practice than their female counterparts, however, there was no considerable difference in the scores (P = 0.803). During set-up and preparation phase, the washing of hands before starting and after the completion of procedure was taken into consideration by less than half of the participants (49.3%). All participants did not ensure the environment is clean and take into account the patient's privacy through the use of screen or even closing the room. The report shows that nurses take into consideration putting on clean gloves dur-How to cite this paper: Mwakanyamale, A

Background Despite the growing recognition of childhood psychological maltreatment as a public health and human rights concern, it remains rampant in developing countries including Tanzania and has a negative impact on the victim’s self-esteem during adolescence. There is a lack of published studies in Tanzania that examine the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and self-esteem during adolescence. This study describes the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and self-esteem and psychological distress among adolescents in Tanzania. Methods This was a cross-sectional, community-based study of secondary school students that was conducted in randomly selected secondary schools in five regions in Tanzania between April 2016 and February 2017. A multistage cluster sampling technique was employed to obtain the required number of study participants. The Rosenberg self-esteem scale, Kessler psychological distress scale (K10) and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) questionnaires were used to measure the variables in the study. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyse the correlation between variables (Psychological maltreatment and self-esteem and psychological distress). Results A sample of 1000 secondary school students was recruited for this study, of which 553 (55.3%) were males and 447 (44.7%) were females. The mean age at presentation was 16.45 ± 6.42 years . Out of the 1000 participants, 766 (76.6%) experienced psychological maltreatment. Emotional abuse was reported in 24.7% of the participants, while emotional neglect was reported in 51.9% of cases. There was a strong positive correlation between psychological maltreatment and self-esteem ( r = 0.55, p < 0.001), whereas the correlation between psychological maltreatment and psychological distress was significantly but weak ( r = − 0.086, p = 0.007). The results also show a strong positive correlation between psychological distress and self-esteem ( r = 0.16, p < 0.001). Conclusion Finding from this study demonstrated that childhood psychological maltreatment is prevalent in our setting and is associated with psychological distress and low self-esteem during adolescence. Urgent intervention targeting at reducing occurrence of childhood psychological maltreatment is necessary to reduce the incidence of low self-esteem and psychological distress among Tanzanian adolescents.

BackgroundChild maltreatment is becoming predominantly multi-type in nature. Studies report that multi-type child maltreatment is associated with low self-esteem in adolescence and adulthood. There is a lack of published studies in Tanzania regarding multi-type child maltreatment and its relationship with self-esteem in adolescence. This study investigates the prevalence of multi-type child maltreatment and its relationship with self-esteem among secondary school students in Tanzania.MethodsA cross-sectional, community-based study of secondary school students was conducted in randomly selected secondary schools in Tanzania. A multistage cluster sampling technique was employed to obtain the required number of study participants. The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) questionnaire were used to measure the variables under investigation in the study. A total of 1000 participants (M: F ratio = 1.2:1) were studied. The mean age at presentation was 16.24 ± 7.36 years. The modal age group was 16–18 years (54.2%).ResultsThe prevalence of multi-type child maltreatment was 97.6%. The prevalence of physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional neglect emotional abuse and sexual abuse was 82.1, 26.2, 51.9, 21.8 and 24.7%, respectively. Females reported a higher prevalence of physical abuse (84.3%), physical neglect (28.0%) and sexual abuse (26.2%) than their male counterparts. Emotional abuse (53.3%) was reported more often by males. In terms of ACE, participants were classified as having zero (2.4%), one (22.4%), two (20.3%), three (18.2%), four (14.7%), five (12.8%) and over five (9.2%) types of maltreatment.With regard to multi-type child maltreatment, emotional abuse (X2 = 2.925, p = 0.001), emotional neglect (X2 = 2.329, p = 0.032), physical neglect (X2 = 22.508, p < 0.001) and physical abuse (X2 = 6.722, p = 0.036) were significantly associated with low self-esteem.ConclusionThe current study demonstrates that multi-type child maltreatment exists in Tanzania and has adversely affected self-esteem among secondary school students. We believe that this study has significantly added to the body of literature on child maltreatment by investigating exposure to 10 types of ACEs as opposed to single types, as the majority of previous studies have investigated.

Background: It is estimated 1.2 billion of world's population are adolescents aged 10-19 years; 80% live in developing countries. Adolescents in developing countries especially Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) face high burden of sexual and reproductive health problems. Sixteen million girls aged 15 to 19 years give birth every year of which 95% occur in low-and middle-income countries. Twenty five percent of unsafe abortions are in 15-19 years in Sub-Saharan Africa. Contraceptive use is low as approximately 10% of adolescents are current users. These problems can be averted if different ranges of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services for adolescent (SRHSA) are available and utilized by adolescents. In Tanzania, there is limited information addressing the availability, types and utilization pattern of sexual and reproductive health services by adolescents. This study investigates the availability, range and utilization of sexual and reproductive health services for adolescents (ASRHS) at Kinondoni Municipality, Tanzania. Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out in April to May 2013. A checklist was used to collect information on the availability and range of services offered at selected health facilities. In depth interviews conducted with in-charges of Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) clinics to explore barriers for provision of Sexual and Reproductive Health Services (SRHS) for adolescents. Adolescents were questioned using a questionnaire on utilization of SRHS and perceived barriers. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize quantitative data and content analysis for qualitative data. Results: On availability and range of adolescents' sexual and reproductive health services, a total of 25

Background: Self-inflicted injuries are a serious but neglected public health problem in developing countries and contribute significantly to the global injury burden. There is a paucity of published data regarding self-inflicted injuries in Tanzania.  This study describes the aetiology, patterns and treatment outcome of these injuries in Mwanza, Tanzania.Methods: This was a combined retrospective and prospective study of self-inflicted injury patients who were managed at Bugando Medical Centre in Mwanza between February 2007 and April 2014. Data were collected using a pretested and coded questionnaire and analysed using SPSS computer software version 17.0Results: A total of 136 patients (M: F = 3.3: 1) were enrolled into the study. The median age was 30 years. Psychiatric illness (30.9%) was the most common risk factor for self-inflicted injuries. Self-poisoning (35.3%) was the most frequent mechanism of self-inflicted injuries. This was followed by cutting/stabbing and jumping from heights in 23.5% and 20.6% of patients, respectively. The trunk was the most frequent (31.9%) body region affected. Open wounds were the most (4.2%) common type of injuries sustained. The majority (72.1%) of patients were treated surgically. The complication rate was 50.7% and it was significantly associated with delayed presentation (p= 0.012). The median hospital stay was 12 days. Patients with long bone fractures and those who had surgical site infection stayed longer in the hospital (p < 0.001). The mortality rate was 22.8%. Late presentation (>24 hour), severe injuries (KTS II ≤ 6) and presence of surgical site infections were the main predictors of mortality (p<0.001).Conclusion: Self-inflicted injuries are an emerging but neglected public health problem in Mwanza, Tanzania and contribute to unacceptably high morbidity and mortality. Addressing the root causes of self-inflicted injuries may reduce the incidence of these injuries in our environment.