Background: Hypertension is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among noncommunicable diseases. The rate of blood pressure (BP) control among hypertensive patients is poor and the reasons for poor control of BP remain poorly understood globally. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the magnitude and determinants of uncontrolled blood pressure among adult hypertensive patients on follow-up at Nekemte referral hospital (NRH). Methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from February to April 2018 at NRH. BP control status was determined by the average consecutive BP recordings across the 3 months. The data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 and p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Out of 297 study participants included, the majority were females, 181 (60.9%), and the mean age of the patients was 59.4 ±10.4 years. About half, 137 (46.12%), of the patients had at least one comorbidity and the most common class of anti-hypertensive medication was angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (88.2%). The mean of systolic blood pressure was 132.41± 15.61mmHg, while the mean of diastolic blood pressure was 84.37± 9.32 mmHg. The proportion of participants with optimally controlled BP was 63.6% and 36% were adherent to their medications. Male sex (Adjusted Odd Ratio [AOR]: 1.89, 95% CI: 1.09-4.84), illiteracy (AOR= 1.56, 95% CI: 1.22-6.78), duration of hypertension diagnosis > 10 years (AOR= 2.01, 95% CI: 1.04-16.11), non-adherence (AOR= 3.14, 95% CI: 1.35-10.76) and lack of physical exercise (AOR= 2.8, 95% CI: 1.16-6.74) were positively associated with uncontrolled BP status. Whereas age older than 55 years (AOR= 0.38, 95% CI: 0.11-0.92) was negatively associated with uncontrolled BP. Conclusion: BP control was relatively achieved in about two-third of pharmacologically treated patients. We recommend better health education and care of patients to improve the rate of BP control status.

ObjectiveSelf-medication is defined as use of medicines to treat self-recognized illnesses. It is widely used in Ethiopia. However, its extent of use is unknown among health professionals. This study aimed to assess prevalence and reasons of self-medication with modern medicines among health professionals. A cross-sectional study was conducted on the health professionals, working in the public health facilities. Data were collected from March to May, 2016 using semi-structured questionnaire. Data were entered and analyzed using statistical package for the social sciences. A chi square test was used as test of significance at 95% of confidence interval.ResultsA total of 154 health professionals were enrolled, with 53% were being females. The finding revealed that prevalence of self-medication with modern medicines was 67.5%. Financial constraints (32.5%) and familiarity with medicines (24%) were the major reasons of self-medication. It also showed that self-medication with modern medicines was significantly associated with marital status (χ2 = 19.57, P = 0.00). Analgesics (53%) and antibiotics (36%) were the most commonly used categories of medicines. Self-medication with modern medicines was highly practiced among health professionals. Financial constraints and familiarity with medicines were the two major reasons of practicing.

Introduction: Obstetric complications continue to be the major causes of maternal mortality in low- and middle-income countries. Knowledge of women toward obstetric danger signs is an important part of improving maternal and fetal outcomes. However, the reported level of knowledge on obstetric danger signs is low and inconsistent. Methods: Community-based cross-sectional study design was used. Data were collected from randomly selected 740 pregnant women. A pregnant woman said to have good knowledge of obstetric danger signs if she spontaneously mentioned at least two of the danger signs during each of the three periods (pregnancy, labor/childbirth, and postpartum) and otherwise said to have poor knowledge of obstetric danger signs. Adjusted odds ratio at 95% confidence interval and a value of p < 0.05 were used to identify the predictors. Results: A total of 740 pregnant women participated in the study with the response rate of 97.5%. One hundred twenty-four (16.8%) of the respondents were knowledgeable about obstetric danger signs. According to our study, age range of 20–24 years (adjusted odds ratio = 6, confidence interval: 2.67–17.44) and 25–29 years old (adjusted odds ratio = 2.4, confidence interval: 1.14–5.10); being housewife (adjusted odds ratio = 0.5, confidence interval: 0.28–0.87); monthly income of ⩽1000ETB (adjusted odds ratio = 0.24, confidence interval: 0.12–0.46) and 1001-2500ETB (adjusted odds ratio = 0.24, confidence interval: 0.12–0.47); and primigravida (adjusted odds ratio = 0.09, confidence interval: 0.04–0.18) and primipara (adjusted odds ratio = 0.15, confidence interval: 0.07–0.30) were factors significantly associated with knowledge of obstetric danger signs. Conclusion: Knowledge of obstetric danger signs among pregnant women was low. Maternal age, average monthly income, maternal occupation, parity, and gravidity were factors significantly associated with the knowledge of obstetric danger signs.

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Background Contraceptive use is the best and most cost-effective strategy to reduce feto-maternal adverse effects of short birth intervals. More than two-thirds of women in developing countries who do not want to conceive are not using contraception methods. Although there were various primary studies in different parts of the country, there is no nationally representative evidence on postpartum modern contraception utilization and its determinants in Ethiopia. Objective This review was aimed to determine the best available pieces of evidence to pool the magnitude of postpartum modern contraception utilization and find out its determinants. Methods Published studies were extensively searched by using electronic databases and unpublished studies were identified from the digital library. All observational studies conducted on the magnitude of postpartum modern contraception utilization and its determinants in Ethiopia were included. Data were extracted on the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and analyzed using STATA 14.1 version. A random-effects model was used to estimate the pooled magnitude of postpartum modern contraception utilization with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Inverse variance (I2) was used to identify the presence of heterogeneity and forest plot was used to estimate the pooled magnitude of postpartum contraception utilization. The presence of publication bias was assessed by funnel plots and Egger’s statistical tests. Sub-group analysis was computed to minimize underlying heterogeneity. Findings In this review, 19 primary studies were included. The pooled magnitude of postpartum modern contraception utilization in Ethiopia was 45.79% (95%CI 36.45%, 55.13%). The review found that having more than four Antenatal care visits(ANC), having postnatal care visit (PNC), having a formal education, history of family planning use, history of counseling on family planning, and having greater than four alive children as significant determinants of postpartum modern contraception utilization. Conclusion The magnitude of postpartum modern contraception utilization in Ethiopia was low. ANC visit, PNC visit, maternal educational status, history of previous family planning use, counseling on family planning, and number of alive children were found to be significant determinants of postpartum modern contraception utilization. Therefore, strengthening focused ANC and PNC services to encourage women in utilizing modern contraception during the postnatal period is needed.