Background Stunting or chronic undernutrition is a significant public health problem in Ethiopia. In 2019, 37% of Ethiopian children under-5 were stunted. Stunting results from a complex interaction of individual, household and social (environmental) factors. Improving the mother’s overall care is the most important determinant in reducing the stunting levels in developing countries. We aimed to determine the most important maternal factors associated with stunting and quantify their effects. Methods This study used data from the nationally representative 2016 Ethiopian Demographic Health Survey (EDHS). Common maternal factors were first selected and analyzed using Pearson’s chi-square of association followed by multiple logistic regression. To quantify the effect of a unit change of a predictor variable a model for the continuous maternal factors was developed. All analyses were carried out using IBM SPSS© Version 23. Results Higher maternal educational level, better maternal autonomy, average or above maternal height and weight, having at least 4 antenatal care (ANC) clinic visits, and delivering in a health facility were significantly associated with lower severe stunting levels. Unemployed mothers were 23% less likely (p = 0.003) to have a stunted child compared with employed mothers. Mothers delivering at home had 32% higher odds of stunting (p = 0.002). We found that short mothers (< 150 cm) were 2.5 more likely to have stunted children when compared with mothers above 160 cm. Every visit to the ANC clinic reduces stunting odds by 6.8% (p <  0.0001). The odds of stunting were reduced by 7% (p = 0.028) for every grade a girl spent in school. A unit increase in Body Mass Index (BMI) reduced the odds of stunting by 4% (p = 0.014) and every centimeter increase in maternal height reduced the odds of stunting by 0.5% (p = 0.01). Conclusion Maternal education, number of antenatal care visits, and place of delivery appear to be the most important predictors of child stunting in Ethiopia.. Therefore, educating and empowering women, improving access to family planning and ANC services, and addressing maternal malnutrition are important factors that should be included in policies aiming to reduce childhood stunting in Ethiopia.

Background The health of individuals is not only the absence of disease checked medically, but also encompasses social and psychological aspects. Any departure from the state of physiological, psychological, or social well-being was affected by different factors. However, all contributory factors were not equally responsible for affecting disease. This study was undertaken as a search for the relative effects of sociocultural and individual behavioral factors contributing to acute and chronic gastritis patients visiting Saint Paul Hospital Millennium Medical College (SPHMMC). Methods A cross-sectional study was carried out on 364 patients visited SPHMMC in the study. Primary data were collected through an interview schedule tool with an exit approach by validating questions pertaining to sociocultural and individual behavioral factors. The status of gastritis was measured as whether patients had Helicobacter Pylori infection, signs and symptoms indicated gastritis that occurred, and persisted for less than a month, greater than a month, or none of the signs and symptoms. Descriptive statistics, bivariate analysis, and multivariable ordinal logistic regression model were used to identify the predictors of gastritis severity. P-value ≤ 0.05 was declared as an indicator of statistically significant. Results The prevalence of gastritis in the study area was 78.8%. Specifically, 48.9% and 29.9% had acute and chronic gastritis, respectively. The study found that low income and taking medicinal drugs was slightly significantly contributed to higher gastritis status; however, being younger age was slightly significantly contributed to lower gastritis status. Furthermore, the results indicated that eating spiced foods (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) = 1.508; 95% CI: 1.046, 2.174), lack of physical exercise regularly (AOR = 1.780; 95% CI: 1.001, 3.168), stress (AOR = 2.168; 95% CI: 1.379, 3.4066), and substance use (AOR = 1.478; 95% CI: 1.093, 1.999) were significantly contributed to higher gastritis status. Conclusions The findings suggested that women should take enough rest and sleep well, men refrain from involvement in any risky behaviors, young people and those who earn low income per month should equip with knowledge and understanding on how to practice good health behaviors, eating foods on time, avoiding eating spiced food frequently, doing physical exercise regularly, and taking medicinal drugs according to physician advice are recommended.

Background: An improved quality Antenatal care (ANC) from skilled providers is essential to pregnant women so that ensure the key health circumstances for mother and child during pregnancy. Thus, this study attempted to assess which risk factors are significantly associated with the timing of antenatal care, the number of antenatal care visits, and the number of items of antenatal care contents received from skilled providers in the recent pregnancy among mothers in Ethiopia. Methods: Data was extracted from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey. A total of 4,685 mothers was included in the analysis. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression analysis and multilevel mixed Negative binomial models were fitted to find the factors associated with antenatal care utilization. A 95% Confidence Interval of Odds ratio/Incidence rate ratio excluding one was reported as significant association with timely initiation of the ANC, numbers of ANC visits, numbers of items of antenatal care contents received and predictor variables.Results: About 20% of the mothers initiated ANC within the first trimester, 36.3% visits at least four ANCs, 3.6% have visited at least eight ANCs, and only 53% received at least four items of antenatal care contents. Rural residence (IRR = 0.81; 95%CI: 0.80-0.89), wanted no more children (IRR = 0.83; 95%CI: 0.75-0.91), mother without decision making power (IRR = 0.90; 95%CI: 0.83-0.98) associated with reduced frequency of ANC visits, while being rural residents (IRR = 0.82; 95%CI: 0.75-0.90), wanted no more children (IRR = 0.87; 95%CI: 0.79-0.96), husband alone decision maker of mothers health care (IRR = 0.88; 95%CI: 0.81-0.96) associated with reduced items of ANC content received. Further, birth order six or more (IRR = 0.74; 95%CI: 0.56-0.96), rural residence (IRR = 0.0.41; 95%CI: 0.34-0.51), wanted no more children (IRR = 0.61; 95%CI: 0.48-0.77) associated with delayed antenatal care utilization. Moreover, higher household wealth status, primary or secondary or higher education of mothers and partner, listening to the radio and watching television at least once a week, and a short distance to health facility were positively significantly associated with the frequency of antenatal care visits, numbers of items of ANC contents received and early initiation of ANC visit for the recent pregnancy during the last five years before the survey. Conclusions: Rural residence, poorest household wealth status, no education level of mothers or partners, unexposed to mass media, unwanted pregnancy, mothers without decision making power, and big distance to the nearest health facility, have a significant impact in delaying the timing of ANC visits, reducing the number of ANC visits and items of ANC received in Ethiopia. We ought to timely initiate an ANC visit for a frequent antenatal care visit during pregnancy. Educating girls and encouraging mothers to use modern contraceptives in order to prevent unwanted pregnancies are vital ingredients that should be included in all policies aiming to reduce maternal and neonatal deaths through improved quality of antenatal care utilization.

Background Maternal mortality remains unacceptably high in sub-Saharan Africa with 533 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, or 200,000 maternal deaths a year. This is over two-thirds (68%) of all maternal deaths per year worldwide. The lifetime risk of maternal death in low-income countries is 1 in 45. Most maternal deaths can be prevented if births are attended by skilled health personnel. Therefore, the current study examined the utilization of maternal health services among women in different sociodemographic statuses within different literacy strata in Ethiopia. Methods A total weighted sample of 3,839 women who gave birth within five years preceding the survey and whose literacy status was measured in the survey were included in this study. The dataset from the most recent Ethiopia Mini Demographic and Health Surveys (EMDHS) 2019 was used for this study. The EMDHS was a community-based cross-sectional study conducted in Ethiopia from March 21 to June 28, 2019. The survey used a two-stage stratified cluster sampling technique. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were employed. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was reported and statistical significance was set at a p-value < 0.05. Results In this study, nearly two-thirds (63.8%) of reproductive-age women were illiterate. The overall prevalence of ANC 1, ANC 4, skilled birth attendance, and postnatal care utilization was 74.9%, 43.5%, 51.9%, and 32.0%, respectively. Our analysis also revealed that literate women are more likely to receive ANC 1 (literate vs illiterate, 87.9% vs 67.5%), ANC 4 (59.4% vs 34.5%), skilled birth attendance (73.3% vs 39.7%), and PNC (51.2% vs 21.1) as compared to their illiterate counterparts (p < 0.001). Regional variation, wealth status, age at first birth, birth order, and birth intervals were found significant factors associated with maternal health care service utilization among both literate and illiterate reproductive-age women in Ethiopia. Similar to this, ANC booking timing and utilization, age of household head, and religious affiliation were associated with institutional delivery and PNC utilization. Conclusion Women’s literacy is an important associate for utilizing appropriate maternal healthcare, with other sociodemographic and obstetric related factors as modifying factors. Hence, wholehearted efforts should be directed toward educating and empowering women. On the other hand, literacy levels and other modifying factors should be considered when designing interventions that enhance maternal health care service utilization. For instance, such programs need to stratify the interventions according to the literacy level of the women.

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