Background. Health related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important outcome measure for highly active antiretroviral treatment program. In Ethiopia, studies revealed that there are improved qualities of life among adults living with the viruses taking antiretroviral therapy but there is no explicit data showing gender differences in health related quality of life. Aim. To assess gender differences in HRQOL and its associated factors among people living with HIV and on highly active antiretroviral therapy in public health institutions of Mekelle town, Northern Ethiopia. Methods. A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among 494 adult people living with HIV taking ART services. Quality of life was measured using WHOQOL-HIV BREF. Result. There was a statistically significant gender difference (P < 0.05) in HRQOL among PLHIV on HAART. Females had low score in all HRQOL domains. High perceived stigma was strongly associated with poor psychological quality of domain among both female and male groups with [AOR = 2.89(1.69,4.96)] and [AOR = 2.5(1.4,4.4)], respectively. Conclusion. There was statistically significant gender difference in all quality of life domains. Public health interventions to improve HRQOL of PLHIV should take in to account the physical, psychological, social, environmental, and spiritual health of PLHIV during treatment, care, and support.

Background: Adverse pregnancy outcomes lead to serious health consequences to the mother and/or the baby. These Adverse birth outcomes; prematurity, low birth weight and still birth represent significant problems in both developing and developed countries. Adverse pregnancy outcomes are still major public health problems in developing countries including Ethiopia where most pregnancies are unplanned, complications are many and outcomes are generally Unfavorable for both mother and infant.Objective: To identify determinants of adverse pregnancy outcomes among deliveries takes place in Jimma University specialized hospital from January1 -December 31 / 2015. Methods:The study was a facility based unmatched casecontrol study design conducted by reviewing mothers and newborn cards and registration log book who delivered in Jimma university specialized hospital from January 1 / 2015 to December 31/2015, southwest Ethiopia. The study was done on randomly selected 86 cases and 258 controls using structured data collection checklist. Data analysis was done by SPSS version 20 and multiple logistic regression statistical methods were used to identify the predictors. Result:In this study 344 mothers and newborns cards were included yielding 100% response rate. From this 86 mothers and newborn cards were selected for case group and 258 mothers and newborn cards were selected for control group. Most of the cases 80.2% and controls 82.9% were between the age group of 20-34 years. Mothers who are referred for delivery service from other area are more than five times to have adverse pregnancy outcomes than mothers who are not referred, AOR=5.49 95% CI [2.80-10.76]. And mothers who had illness during

BackgroundThe role played by social determinants of health including social, economic, environmental and cultural factors in influencing health outcomes for many health conditions has been widely described. However, the potential impact of these factors on morbidity and mortality of infectious diseases particularly tuberculosis (Tb)/HIV co-infection mortality is scantly addressed. We assessed the role that social determinants play in Tb/HIV co-infection mortality in southwest Ethiopia.MethodsA retrospective cohort study collated Tb and HIV data from Jimma University Teaching Hospital, Southwest Ethiopia for the period of September 2010 and August 2012. Data analysis was conducted using STATA version 14 for mackintosh. Both descriptive and inferential statistics analyses were performed. Logistic regression was applied to identify factors associated with Tb/HIV co-infection mortality at P value of ≤0.05 in the final model.ResultsFifty-five (20.2 %) patients died during the study period. Compared to their counterparts, more Tb/HIV co-infection death was observed in young age groups between 25 and 34 years (47.3 %), females (58.2 %), daily labors (40 %) and Muslim followers (54.5 %). 43.6 and 41.8 % of study participants respectively had single and double bedrooms, and 25.5 and 23.6 % of deceased study participants did not have water and electricity in the household respectively. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated the following factors significantly associated with Tb/HIV co-infection mortality: being a commercial sex worker (AOR, 5.6; 95 % CI, 1.2–25.8), being of bed ridden functional status (AOR, 3.9; 95 % CI, 1.5–10.3) and being a rural resident (AOR, 3.4; 95 % CI, 1.4–8.4).ConclusionsOne-fifth of Tb/HIV co-infected patients died due to the co-infection. Social determinants including type of occupation, severity of disease and residing in rural areas seemed to have a significant association with the poor disease outcome. Findings of this study inform the role that social determinants play in influencing mortality due to Tb/HIV co-infection. Consistent with principles of primary health care as stated by Alma Ata declaration, and in order to achieve better disease outcomes, intervention frameworks that address Tb/HIV mortality should not only focus on the medical interventions of diseases, but should also integrate and improve social determinants of affected populations.

BackgroundWomen’s decision-making power regarding reproductive health and rights (RHR) was the central component to achieve reproductive well-being. Literatures agree that a women having higher domestic decision-making power regarding their health care were more likely to utilize health services. More than 80% of women in Ethiopia reside in rural areas where they considered as the subordinates of their husbands. This would restrict women to fully exercise their RHR. Thus, this study aims to determine the factors influencing the women’s decision-making power regarding RHR in Mettu rural district, South West Ethiopia.MethodsA community based cross-sectional study was done among 415 by using randomly selected married women of reproductive age from March to April 2017. Data was entered by using Epi-data manger 1.4 and analyzed by SPSS version 21. Descriptive and multivariate logistic regression analysis was carried out.ResultOne hundred sixty-eight (41.5%) of the women had greater decision-making power regarding RHR. Woman’s primary education AOR 2.62[95% C. I 1.15, 5.97], secondary (9+) education AOR 3.18[95% C. I 1.16, 8.73] and husband’s primary education AOR 4.0[95% C. I 1.53, 10.42], secondary (9+) education AOR 3.95 [95% C. I 1.38, 11.26], being knowledgeable about RHR AOR 3.57 [95% C. I 1.58, 8.09], marriage duration of more than 10 years AOR 2.95 [95% C. I 1.19, 7.26], access to micro-credit enterprises AOR 4.26[95% C. I 2.06, 8.80], having gender equitable attitude AOR 6.38 [95% C. I 2.52, 12.45] and good qualities of spousal relation AOR 2.95 [95% C. I 1.30, 6.64] were positively influencing women’s decision-making power regarding RHR.ConclusionMore than four in ten rural women had greater decision-making power regarding RHR. External pressures (qualities of spousal relation, gender equitable attitude) and knowledge about RHR were found to influence women’s decision-making power. Public health interventions targeting women’s RHR should take into account strengthening rural micro-credit enterprises, qualities of spousal relations and priority should be given to women with no formal education of husband or herself and marriage duration of < 5 years.

BackgroundA delay presentation for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patient’s care (that is late engagement to HIV care due to delayed HIV testing or delayed linkage for HIV care after the diagnosis of HIV positive) is a critical step in the series of HIV patient care continuum. In Ethiopia, delayed presentation (DP) for HIV care among vulnerable groups such as tuberculosis (Tb) /HIV co-infected patients has not been assessed. We aimed to assess the prevalence of and factors associated with DP (CD4 < 200 cells/μl at first visit) among Tb/HIV co-infected patients in southwest Ethiopia.MethodsA retrospective observational cohort study collated Tb/HIV data from Jimma University Teaching Hospital for the period of September 2010 and August 2012. The data analysis used logistic regression model at P value of ≤ 0.05 in the final model.ResultsThe prevalence of DP among Tb/HIV co-infected patients was 59.9 %. Tb/HIV co-infected patients who had a house with at least two rooms were less likely (AOR, 0.5; 95 % CI: 0.3–1.0) to present late than those having only single room. Tobacco non-users of Tb/HIV co-infected participants were also 50 % less likely (AOR, 0.5; 95 % CI: 0.3–0.8) to present late for HIV care compared to tobacco users. The relative odds of DP among Tb/HIV co-infected patients with ambulatory (AOR, 1.8; 95 % CI, 1.0–3.1) and bedridden (AOR, 8.3; 95 % CI, 2.8–25.1) functional status was higher than with working status.ConclusionsThree out of five Tb/HIV co-infected patients presented late for HIV care. Higher proportions of DP were observed in bedridden patients, tobacco smokers, and those who had a single room residence. These findings have intervention implications and call for effective management strategies for Tb/HIV co-infection including early HIV diagnosis and early linkage to HIV care services.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40249-016-0193-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.