BackgroundIron and folic acid deficiency anaemia are one of the global public health challenges that pose 1.45% of all disability-adjusted life-years. It is recognized as a cause for an unacceptably high proportion of maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Adherence to iron and folic acid supplementation during the antenatal period is paramount to reduce anaemia and its associated morbidities. Although several studies have been conducted across the country, their reports were inconsistent and inconclusive for intervention. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis were aimed to estimate the pooled national level adherence to iron and folic acid supplementation and its determinants among pregnant women in Ethiopia.MethodsThis systematic review and meta-analysis were pursued the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2009 guideline. An extensive search of databases including, PubMed, Google Scholar, and African Journals Online were conducted to access articles. The Newcastle- Ottawa quality assessment tool was used to assess the quality of each study and meta-analysis was conducted using a random-effects model. I2 test and Egger’s test were used to assess the heterogeneity and publication bias respectively. The meta-analysis of estimating national level adherence were done using STATA version 11 with 95% CI.ResultsTwenty studies with a total of 16,818 pregnant women were included in this meta-analysis. The pooled national level iron and folic acid supplementation’s adherence were 46.15% (95%CI:34.75,57.55). The highest adherence was observed in Addis Abeba, 60% (95%CI: 55.93, 64.07) followed by Tigray, 58.9% (95% CI: 33.86, 84.03). Women who received supplemental information [OR = 2.34, 95%CI: 1.05, 5.24], who had good knowledge [OR = 2.2, 95%CI: 1.05, 5.24], began the ANC visit before 16 weeks [OR = 2.41, 95%CI: 1.76, 3.29], and had ≥4 ANC visits [OR = 2.59, 95% CI: 1.09, 6.15] were more likely adhere to the supplementation. Fear of side effects (46.4, 95% CI: 30.9 61.8) and forgetfulness (30.7, 95% CI: 17.6, 43.8) were the major barriers of adherence of the supplementations.ConclusionsMore than four of nine pregnant women have adhered to the iron and folic acid supplementation. This meta-analysis revealed that receiving supplemental counselling, knowledge of the supplement; early registration and frequent ANC visit were significantly associated with the adherence of the iron and folic acid supplementation. Therefore, provision of strengthened supplemental counselling service, antenatal care services, and improving the knowledge of the supplementation is a crucial strategy to increase the adherence among pregnant women in Ethiopia. Besides, addressing the barriers of the adherence of the supplement mainly counseling or managing of side effects and reducing of forgetfulness to take the tablet through getting family support or male involvement during visit is mandatory.

Objective: Although Ethiopia has been implementing Option B+ program, LTFU of women from the Option B+ program is one of the challenges that minimizes its implementation. Thus, this study assessed the incidence and predictors of LTFU among women under Option B+ PMTCT program in western Ethiopia. An institution-based retrospective follow-up study was conducted. A cox proportional hazards regression model was fitted to identify predictors of LTFU. A Hazard ratios with 95% confidence CI was computed and all predictors that were associated with the outcome variable at p-value ≤ 0.05 in the multivariable cox proportional hazards were declared as a significance predictor of the outcome. Results: A total of 330 women were followed for a mean follow up time of 16.9 (± 7.6) months. An overall incidence rate of LTFU was 9/1000 person-months. Women's educational status, residence, HIV-disclosure status, the status of women at enrollment, previous history of HIV and ART adherence were significant predictors of LTFU. The incidence of LTFU from Option B+ PMTCT is lower as compared to evidence from sub-Saharan African and strengthening linkage and referral system between clinics as well as establishing appropriates tracing mechanisms would retain pregnant women in the program.

Background Unintended pregnancy is an important public health concern in both developing and developed countries due to its serious consequences for women, infants, families and communities, including the risk of unsafe abortion, delayed prenatal care, poor maternal mental health, poor child health outcomes and unemployment. Objective The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence and associated factors of unintended pregnancy among pregnant women in the town of Debre Markos in 2019. Methods The magnitude and associated factors of unintended pregnancy were assessed using a community-based cross-sectional study design. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select five Kebeles (basic administrative units), and households were selected from the selected Kebeles using simple random sampling. A total of 580 samples were collected through standardized pretested questionnaires. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression were used to analyze the relationship between the UP and independent variables. Results Of the pregnant women, 202 (34.8%) (95% CI: 30.9–38.7) participants had an unintended current pregnancy; of those 144 (24.8%) were mistimed pregnancies. Women aged 24 years were three times more likely to have an unintended pregnancy than those aged 35 years. Divorced and widowed women were four times more likely than women who were currently married to experience an unintended pregnancy. Gravidity 1–2 and 3–4 were 94% and 86% less likely than gravidity > 5 to experience an unintended pregnancy, and women who made family planning decisions on their own were less likely to have an unintended pregnancy. Conclusion According to this study, the prevalence of unintended pregnancy was 34.8% and unintended pregnancy was significantly correlated with women’s age, marital status, gravidity and who made decisions on family planning. There is an obvious need to devise communication strategies on fertility and contraceptive issues between couples through peer education, and to encourage correct use of long-acting modern methods of family planning.

Background: In Ethiopia, literatures are not in agreement on magnitude of utilization of postnatal care service and factors are not well identified. Hence, this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to engender pooled evidence of magnitude of postnatal care service utilization and associated factors. Methods: For this systematic review and meta-analysis international databases such as, HINARI, PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, Google scholar and Cochrane library were used for searching studies published from 2002 to 2018 in English language. The Modified Newcastle- Ottawa quality assessment scale was used to assess the quality of studies and meta-analysis was conducted using STATA version 14. Q statistics and I2 test were used to assess the heterogeneity. The random effect model was used to estimate the pooled utilization of postnatal care at 95%CI. Result: Total of 22 articles with total samples of 42,320 women were included to this review. The pooled prevalence of postnatal care service utilization in Ethiopia was 41.5% (95%CI: 28.51-54.52). Women who attended formal education (OR, 2.37, 95%CI: 1.13, 4.97), had middle level and above household’s wealth quintile (OR, 2.57, 95%CI: 1.31,5.05), had antenatal care visit (OR, 6.72, 95%CI: 4.16, 10.87), being multigravida (OR, 0.68, 95%CI: 0.53, 0.88) and gave birth in health institutions (OR, 3.86, 95%CI: 2.89, 5.16) were high likely to utilize postnatal care services while rural resident women (OR, 0.17, 95%CI: 0.05, 0.60) were less likely to utilize postnatal care services. Conclusion: Postnatal care service utilization in Ethiopia is low (41.5%). It is affected by educational status, residence, wealth quintile, gravidity, antenatal care follow up and place of delivery. Scale up the service and awareness for rural people, improving economic status of the household, improve antenatal care follow up, and promote institutional delivery are having paramount importance. Key words: Health care service utilization, Ethiopia, systematic review, Meta-analysis