Background: Antibiotics require more prudent prescribing, dispensing and administration than other medicines because these medicines are at a greater risk of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Studying the current medicine use practices and factors affecting the prescribing of an antibiotic would help decision makers to draft policies that would enable a more rational use of medicines. Methods: A prospective, descriptive, and cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the current prescribing practices including antibiotics use in six community pharmacies in Asmara. A total of 600 encounters were reviewed using the WHO core prescribing indicators between May 5 and May 12, 2019 using stratified random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were employed using IBM SPSS® (version 22). Results: The average number of medicines per prescription was 1.76 and 83.14% of the medicines were prescribed using generic names while 98.39% of the medicines were from the National Essential Medicines List (NEML). The percentage of prescriptions containing antibiotics was 53%. The number of encounters containing injections was 7.8%. Patient age, gender and number of medicines prescribed were significantly associated with antibiotic prescribing at bivariate and multivariable models. Subjects under the age of 15 were approximately three times more likely to be prescribed antibiotic compared to subjects whose age is 65 and above (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR): 2.93, 95%CI: 1.71-5). Similarly, males were more likely to be prescribed antibiotic than females (AOR: 1.57, 95%CI: 1.10-2.24). Subjects to whom three to four medicines prescribed were two times more likely to be prescribed an antibiotic compared to those who were to be prescribed one to two medicines per encounter (AOR: 2.17, 95%CI: 1.35-3.5). A one-unit increase in the number of medicines increased the odds of antibiotic prescribing increased by 2.02 units (COR: 2.02; 95%CI: 1.62-2.52). Conclusions: This study found that the percentage of antibiotics being prescribed at the community pharmacies in Asmara was 53% which deviated significantly from the WHO recommended values (20-26.8%). Furthermore, the percentage of encounters with an injection was 7.8% lower than the WHO value of 13.4-24.0%. Patients' age, gender and number of medicines were significantly associated with antibiotic prescribing.

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.

ObjectiveInappropriate use of antibiotics in primary care and hospital settings is a major contributing factor to the spread of antibiotic resistance. Many microorganisms were tested in Eritrea and have proven resistant to ampicillin. The aim of this study was to investigate the prescription pattern, hospital indicator and patient care indicator of antibiotics among hospitalized patients in Halibet National Referral Hospital, Asmara, Eritrea.ResultsThe data on prescription patterns showed 79% of hospitalizations had at least one antibiotic prescribed and on average 1.29 antibiotics were prescribed per hospitalization; prescribing using generic name was at 97%; all (100%) of the antibiotics were prescribed from the Eritrean National List of Medicines. On average an antibiotic was prescribed for 6.36 days (SD = 6.06). Ampicillin was the most commonly prescribed antibiotic (42.1%) and parenteral was the most common route prescribed (81.4%). The data on hospital indicators showed key antibiotics were out of stock on average for 78.18 days; 87.5% of key antibiotics were available on the day of the study. The data on patient care indicator showed patients taking antibiotics stayed in the hospital for 9.97 days (± 7.33 days).Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-018-4000-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background Incompleteness and illegibility of prescriptions are prescription errors that account for a high proportion of medication errors that could potentially result in serious adverse effects. Thus, the objective of this study was to assess the completeness and legibility of prescriptions filled in the community chain pharmacies. Methods An analytical and cross-sectional study was conducted in the six government owned community chain pharmacies of Asmara, Eritrea from June 3rd to 10th, 2019 using a stratified random sampling technique. A total of 385 prescriptions were analyzed for completeness and legibility by three pharmacists (two experienced and one intern pharmacist). Descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression were employed using IBM SPSS® (Version 22). Results A total of 710 drugs were prescribed from the 385 prescriptions assessed. On average, a prescription was found to have 78.63% overall completeness. In the majority of the prescriptions, patient’s information such as name, age, sex, and prescriber’s identity were present. Prescribed drugs’ information such as dose, frequency and quantity and/or duration were present in 83.7, 87.7, and 95.1% respectively. Moreover, generic names were used in 83.3% of the drugs prescribed. About half (54.3%) of the prescriptions’ legibility were classified in grade four (clearly legible) and 30.6% in grade three (moderately legible). It was observed that legibility significantly increased with an increase in percentage completeness (rs = 0.14, p = 0.006). However, as the number of drugs written in brand name increased, legibility decreased (rs = − 0.193, p < 0.001). Similarly, as the number of drugs prescribed increased, legibility decreased (rs = − 0.226, p < 0.006). Conclusion Majority of the handwritten prescriptions received in the community pharmacies of Asmara are complete and clearly legible.

Objectives The World Health Assembly (WHA) developed six global nutrition targets that focus on child and maternal nutrition. The progress made by individual countries is available as a yearly global nutrition report. However, reporting the national progress might mask important sub-national differences. This study aimed to measure the progress of the 11 regions of Ethiopia towards achieving the 2025 WHA targets using average annual reduction rates (AARR). Results Ethiopia is off-track in meeting the five global nutrition targets studied. The national AARR of stunting is 2.3 against a target of 5.3, for wasting the current AARR is 3.1 against a target of 5.3. The AARR of non-exclusive breastfeeding was 2.1 close to the target of 2.7. Anemia in women of reproductive age increased across all the regions of Ethiopia. The majority of Ethiopian regions were on track to achieving the overweight and exclusive breastfeeding targets by 2025. There is an urgent need to address anemia in Ethiopian women of reproductive age because its prevalence has been increasing. Secondly, the progress to reduce wasting and stunting in children under-5 has not been enough and more work needs to be done if Ethiopia is to achieve the 2025 targets.