Background:The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic presented a great threat to the physical and mental health of the general population. Patients with chronic disease have always been vulnerable to stressful life conditions. Therefore, determining the perceived stress and coping strategies among chronic disease patients is crucial to minimize the mental health consequences related to the outbreak. Objective: This study aimed to determine COVID-19-related stress and coping strategies among adults with chronic disease in southwest Ethiopia. Methods: An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 613 randomly selected adults with chronic disease in southwest Ethiopia. A multiple linear regression analysis was used to determine the relationship between the COVID-19-related stress score and coping strategy types, and independent sample t-tests and ANOVA tests were conducted. Statistical significance was accepted at p-values <0.05. Results: More than two-thirds of study participants (68.4%) were moderately stressed, 13.9% were severely stressed, and 17.8% had low levels of perceived stress. Active coping (β=1.238, 95% CI: 0.0 to 2.477), denial (β=3.678, 95% CI: 2.44 to 4.915), behavioral disengagement (β=3.669, 95% CI: 2.193 to 5.146), self-blame (β=1.722, 95% CI: 0.146 to 3.297), and religion (β=3.443, 95% CI: 2.028 to 4.858) coping strategies positively predicted the COVID-19-related stress score. Only the acceptance coping strategy (β=−2.710, 95% CI: −3.926 to −1.493) negatively predicted the COVID-19-related stress score. Conclusion: Significant numbers of participants suffered from moderate to severe perceived stress levels due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Both adaptive and maladaptive coping strategy types were significantly associated positively and negatively with perceived stress score among adults with chronic disease. There were significant differences in the mean scores of perceived stress and categories of variables such as family size, duration of disease, and age of the participants.

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus which are a large family of viruses that are common in people and many different species of animals which can affect people physically and psychologically. The older people and those with underlying medical problems are more likely to develop serious illness and death. Objective the aim of this study was to determine Covid-19 related stress and coping strategies among adults with chronic disease in Bench-Sheko,West Omo and Keffa Zones, southwest Ethiopia Methods Institutional based cross-sectional study was applied among 613 adults with chronic disease. A simple sampling technique was applied. Correlational analysis was used to determine the relationship between the COVID-19 related stress score and coping strategy types. To measure the strength of association between dependent variables and independent variables and Pearson coefficients (r) with 95% Confidence interval (CI) were calculated. Finally, the variable, which shows statistical significance (p-value < 0.05 cut point) were used to quantify the associations among variables. Results: Around 613 participants of 96% response rate were participated. About 68.4% were moderately stressed; low stress was 17.8% and severe stress was 13.9 %. Covid-19 related perceived stress score were positively associated with coping strategies types of like sell-distraction, active coping, denial, emotional support, behavioral disengagement, venting, and use of instrument, positive reframing, self-blaming, planning, humoring and religion. The most preferable types of coping strategies were religious, instrumental and active coping strategies and while the least used were substance used. Conclusion: Significant numbers of participants were suffered from severe perceived stress due to covid-19 outbreak in this study area. Both adaptive and maladaptive Coping strategy types were significantly associated with stress. Substance use and self-blaming were the types coping strategies which were not associated with perceived stress.

Backgrounds The frequency of poor dietary practice due to inappropriate dietary habits is higher during pregnancy compared to any other stage of the life cycle. Suboptimal dietary practices during pregnancy can increase the risk of intrauterine growth restriction, low birth weight, anemia, prenatal and infant mortality, and morbidity. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the dietary practice and associated factors among pregnant women at the public hospitals of Bench-Sheko and Kaffa zone. Methodology An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among 566 pregnant women who attended antenatal care at the public hospitals of the Bench-Sheko and Kaffa zones. A systematic random sampling technique was employed to select the study units. The data were entered into Epi Data 3.1 and exported to Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 21 software for further analysis. Both Binary and Multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to examine the association between dependent and independent variables. The Crude Odd Ratio (COR) and Adjusted Odd Ratio (AOR) with 95% Confidence interval (CI) were calculated and the variable with P-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result According to this study, only 23.7% (95% CI: 20.1, 27.4) of the study participants had a good dietary practice. The urban residents (AOR = 2.64; 95% CI:1.18, 5.92), monthly income of > 2000ETB (AOR = 2.47; 95% CI: 1.31,4.65), having nutrition information (AOR = 2.5; 95% CI: 1.14,5.52), good dietary knowledge (AOR = 2.79; 95% CI: 1.48,5.27), mothers occupation of employer (AOR = 1.88; 95% CI: 1.04,3.42) and a family size < 5 (AOR = 3.37; 95% CI: 1.32,8.65) were determinate of dietary practice. Conclusion Generally, the prevalence of good dietary practice is suboptimal in the study area. Urban residency, monthly income > 2000ETB, good dietary knowledge, having nutrition information, family size < 5, and government employed mothers were the predictors of the good dietary practice in the Bench-Sheko and Kaffa zone. Therefore, providing in-service training for health professionals and assigning nutritionist to each public hospital should be done to provide health and nutrition education; and strengthen the existed nutrition counseling service for pregnant women. Moreover, the government should create sustainable income-generating activities for pregnant women.