Background: To confirm effective preventive practice and reduce the risk of COVID-19 data on knowledge, attitude, and preventive practices (KAP) are essential. Therefore, the current study was designed to evaluate the KAP of COVID-19 among people with hypertension (HTN) and/or diabetes mellitus (DM) attending public health facilities in Ambo town. Patients and Methods: Institutional-based cross-sectional study design was done among patients with HTN and/or DM from June 2020 to September 2020 at Ambo University Referral Hospital (AURH) and Ambo General Hospital (AGH). To identify the associated factors with poor practice and knowledge, logistic regression analyses were used. Results: The mean age of the study respondents was 44.6 years (± 9.84) of which the majority were male 235 (55.6%) and 159 (37.59%) of the participants had good knowledge. Concerning attitude, 335 (79.2%) have strongly believed that DM and HTN patients were more at risk of death because of COVID-19. Only 44 (10.4%) of them had a good level of COVID-19 prevention practice measures. Patients who use the source of information daily were 54.4% less likely to have poor knowledge about COVID-19 than those who use it weekly. Participants with no formal education were 3 times more likely to have poor COVID-19 prevention practice than those who were with formal education, and participants who have poor knowledge about COVID-19 were 2 times more likely to have poor COVID-19 prevention practice than those who have knowledge. Conclusion: The prevalence of poor knowledge about COVID-19 was low, and only less than ¾ of the participants strongly believed COVID-19 as a serious disease. A small percentage of participants had a good level of COVID-19 prevention practice. Good knowledge had an association with a good level of prevention practice. So, health sectors should work to increase accessibility of COVID-19 information.

Analysis of the global burden of hypertension revealed that over 26% of the world's adult population had hypertension in 2000 [7,10], and has shown a rapid increase in prevalence affecting significant numbers of individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although there is AbstractHypertension is an important worldwide public-health challenge because of its high frequency and risk factor for cerebrovascular, cardiovascular and kidney disease. Drug therapy problems are a significant challenge to health care providers. It severely compromises the effectiveness of treatment making this a critical issue in population health both from the perspective of quality of life and of health economics. Therefore, the objective of this study is to determine the pattern and magnitude of drug therapy problems in the study hospital and to find out risk factors for these problems. The study was questionnaire-based Cross sectional design which was conducted from April to May 2014 at Adama Hospital Medical College. A convenient sampling method was used and a total of 192 hypertensive patients were included in the study. Data were analyzed using SPSS software program. In this study 155 (80.7%) patients have at least one drug therapy problem and a total of 452 drug therapy problems were identified in them. The most common drug therapy problem identified in this study was drug interaction (n=259, 58.7%), followed by non-adherence and adverse drug interaction constituting 19.5% and 18.6% respectively. Under dose accounts only 0.9% of all drug therapy identified. Marital status, number of drugs and number of co morbidities significantly affect drug therapy problems. The study showed that 80.7% of the patients in the study have drug therapy problems. Number of complications and number of drugs significantly affect drug therapy problems. Therefore, patients with multiple diagnosis and patients using multiple drugs should be closely monitored for drug therapy problem, to avoid clinically significant harmful consequences.

Background: Data regarding prolonged length of hospital stay (PLOS) and in-hospital mortality are paramount to evaluate efficiency and quality of surgical care as well as for rational resource utilization, allocation, and administration. Thus, PLOS and in-hospital mortality have been used as a surrogate indicator of satisfactory treatment outcome and efficient utilization of resources for a given health institution. However, there was a scarcity of data regarding these issues in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed to assess treatment outcome, length of hospital stay, in-hospital mortality, and their determinants. Methods: Health facility-based prospective observational study was used for three consecutive months among adult patients hospitalized for the surgical case. Socio-demographic, clinical history, medication history, in-hospital complications, and overall treatment outcomes were collected from the medical charts' of the patients, using a checklist from the day of admission to discharge. PLOS is defined as hospital stay > 75th percentile (≥33 days for the current study). To identify predictor variables for both PLOS and in-hospital mortality, multivariate logistic regression was performed at p-value < 0.05 using SPSS version 20. Written informed consent was sought and secured. Results: Of 269 study participants, 91.8% were improved and discharged. PLOS was recorded in 25.3%; at least 33 days of hospital stay. Overall in-hospital mortality was 4.8%; which is equal to an incidence rate of 0.00193 per person-days, 5.2% in-hospital sepsis, and 2.6% of Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), during their hospital stay. After adjusting for other factors; female gender (p = 0.003), emergency admission (p = 0.015), presence of Poly-pharmacy (p = 0.017), and presence of sepsis (p = 0.006) were found to be independent predictors for in-hospital mortality. On top of this, female gender (p = 0.026), patients who was paid by government (p = 0.007), burn-related surgery (p = 0.049), presence of cancer (p = 0.027), > 2 antibiotic exposure (p < 0.0001), and waiting for surgery for > 7 days (p < 0.0001) were independent predictors for PLOS.

Background: Surgical site infection (SSI) is the most prevalent in developing countries where 61-90% of cases develop in-hospital. The study aimed to assess the correctness of antibiotic prophylaxis (AP) use, the incidence of in-hospital SSI, and its determinants. Patients and Methods: A 3-month hospital-based prospective observational study design was used on general surgery patients. The criteria for identification of SSI were performed based on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) definition of SSI. The correctness of AP was performed based on the American Society of Health System Pharmacist 2013 guideline (ASHP). Multiple stepwise backward logistic regression analysis was used at p-value <0.05 to predict SSI. Results: Of 269 adult patients, the type of admission was almost equal between emergency and elective surgery. The mean (± SD) age of the study participants was 41.95±17.764. Only 19.7% of the study participants used AP correctly. The incidence rate of in-hospital SSI was 16.7% (45/269), which corresponds to 45/4736 or 9.5/1000 person-days. Independent predictors for SSI were American Society of Anesthesiology (ASA) class III-IV (p-value <0.0001), patients with age-adjusted Charlson co-morbidity index (CCI) of ≥1 score (p value=0.008), and incorrect use of AP (p-value =0.025). Conclusion: Incorrect antibiotic prophylaxis use contributed to an increased risk of SSI, which needs urgent attention in the present study area.

Introduction: Internet addiction (IA) is causing academic failure, decreased concentration ability, and a negative affective state. In Ethiopia, studies conducted on IA were limited; therefore, this study aimed to assess its prevalence and risk factors among medicine and health science (MHS) students of Ambo University. Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study and included MHS students of Ambo University from July 15 to August 15, 2021. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire after receiving informed consent from study participants. The results were analyzed using the statistical software for social sciences version 24. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were performed to explore the relationship between IA and dependent variables. Results: Of the 253 participants who participated in the study, 201 (79%) were found to have an IA. Having one’s own computer, Internet access at home and an email account were 2 times more risky to develop IA compared to their counterparts with AOR = 2.615 (95% CI = 1.118-5.956) with a P value of .022, AOR = 2.154 (95% CI = 1.054-4.405) with a P value of .35 and (=2.154 (95% CI = 1.054-4.405 with a P value of .035 respectively. Additionally, those who use the Internet for news were 2.5 times more likely to develop IA compared to those who do not (AOR = 2.551 (95% CI = 1.225-5.349) with a P-value of .013). The use of the Internet for scientific research and education reduces IA by 0.7 times (AOR = 0.323 (95% CI = 0.120-0.868) with a P value of .025). Conclusions: The prevalence of IA was found to be high in this study. Therefore, strategies are needed to minimize the prevalence of this problem.