(1) Background: Tuberculosis is a bacterial disease mainly caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. It is one of the major public health problems in the world and now ranks alongside human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the leading infectious cause of death. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential risk factors affecting the time to death of TB patients in southwest Ethiopia using parametric shared frailty models. (2) Methods: A retrospective study design was used to collect monthly records of TB patients in three selected hospitals in southwest Ethiopia. The data used in the study were obtained from patients who took part in the directly observed treatment, short-course (DOTS) program from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2019. The survival probability was analyzed by the Kaplan–Meier method. Log-rank tests and parametric shared frailty models were applied to investigate factors associated with death during TB treatment. (3) Results: Out of the total sample of 604 registered TB patients, 46 (7.6%) died during the study period and 558 (92.4%) were censored. It was found that the median time of death for TB patients was 5 months. Hospitals were used to assess the cluster effect of the frailty model. A Gamma shared frailty model with Weibull distribution for baseline hazard function was selected among all models considered and was used for this study. It was found that the covariates, age, initial weight, extrapulmonary type of TB patient, patient category, and HIV status of TB patient were significant risk factors associated with death status among TB patients. (4) Conclusions: The risk of death was high, especially with cases of HIV co-infected, retreated, and returned-after-treatment categories of TB patients. During the treatment period, the risk of death was high for older TB patients and patients with low baseline body weight measurements. Therefore, health professionals should focus on the identified factors to improve the survival time of TB patients.

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Background Teenage childbearing remains a significant global health concern, and in nations with limited resources, it is the major cause of newborn and maternal deaths. Early teenage childbearing is still Ethiopia’s public health issue. Therefore, the goal of this study was to identify the prevalence and correlates of influencing early childbearing among teenage girls across Ethiopia. Methods We conducted a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey. A multistage stratified cluster sampling strategy based on the community was used to include the 3,498 participants in total. To determine the significantly correlated factors that influence adolescent pregnancy, a multilevel binary logistic regression analysis was used. The factors that have a significant association with early childbearing were identified using the Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) and 95% Confidence Interval (CI). Results This study demonstrated that 10.3% of teens across the country had children at an early age. The odds of early childbearing among teenage girls increased with first marriages occurring before the age of 18, non-formal education, being from a lower- or middle-class family, not using contraceptives, following Muslim or other religious beliefs, and being aware of the fertile window. Teenagers who had exposure to the media, however, had a reduced chance of becoming pregnant early. Conclusions The study indicates that early teenage childbearing is still Ethiopia’s most significant public health problem. Therefore, the Ethiopian government should ban early marriage while also taking steps to reduce the risk through formal education, improved access to reproductive health education, and contraception, particularly for adolescent girls from low-income families and, by educating religious institutions about pregnancy dangers.

Background: Childbearing is a teenage girl usually within the ages of 13-19, becoming fertile. Teenage childbearing and the consequences associated with it remain a major concern worldwide. In Sub-Saharan African countries like Ethiopia, teenage childbearing rates have high compared to the rest of the world. The study assessed risk-factors and regional-variations among teenage childbearing in Ethiopia.Method: The data were obtained from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey. A two-stage cluster sampling design was applied to select the sample. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to assess' the risk-factors and regional-variation among teenage childbearing in Ethiopia.Results: In this study, 3498 teenagers from nine regional states and two administrative cities in Ethiopia were included. Over 10% of teenagers have been born children at the time of data collection. Shortage of education, poor-wealth index, knowing ovulatory cycle, non-usage of contraceptive-method, and non-exposure to media found to be determinants of teenager childbearing in Ethiopia. Conclusions: The incidence of teenage childbearing is high in Ethiopia then the concerned bodies provide awareness to the society on the risk of early pregnancy, encourage education, expand mass media and give special attention to poor and middle-income teenagers.

BACKGROUND:Multiple sexual partnerships were one of the public health issues in the spread of high rates of sexually transmitted infections in sub-Saharan regions. An increase in the number of non-marital sexual partners can lead to a loss of satisfaction as well as other mental health repercussions such as greater rates of anxiety, depression, etc. This study examined the predictors of multiple sexual partners among men in Ethiopia.METHODS: This study used 2016 nationally representative data which was conducted using a multistage stratified cluster sampling method. Multilevel binary logistic regression models were employed to estimate the predictors of multiple sexual partners among men in Ethiopia with the assistance of the STATA software.RESULTS: In this study 6778 participants were considered with an overall prevalence rate of multiple sexual partners of 6.5% during the 12 months preceding the survey. The findings showed that older-age, urban-resident, inconsistent use of a condom, exposure to any media, abuse of alcohol, early-time first-sex, and religion were predictors of multiple sexual partners among men in Ethiopia.CONCLUSIONS: The findings revealed that the prevalence rate of men's multiple sexual partners in Ethiopia was very high. Therefore, the country needs to re-examine the behavioral change strategies periodically to adapt to the contextual realities and engage relevant stakeholders. Specifically, health sectors and religious organizations should develop strategies to create awareness in society on the risk of having multiple sexual partnerships. In addition, we highly recommend stakeholders prepare risk reduction interventions that take the significant predictors of multiple sexual partners.

Background: Among the cancers, next to cervical cancer, in Ethiopia, breast cancer is the second common cancer health problem for women. This article aimed to identify the potential risk factors affecting of time-to-first-recurrence of breast cancer patients in southwest Ethiopia: Jimma Medical Center, Bedelle hospital, Mizan-Aman hospital, and Mettu hospital and Karl hospital. Methods: The data were taken from the patient’s medical record that registered from January 2012 to January 2019. The study considered a sample size of 642 breast cancer patients. Different non-parametric and parametric shared frailty survival models employed. Results: Out of 642 breast cancer patients, about 447 (69.6 %) recovered/cured of the disease. The median cure time from breast cancer found 13 months. The lognormal parametric shared frailty survival model predicted that treatment, stage of breast cancer, smoking habit, and marital status significantly affects the time to the first recurrence of breast cancer. Conclusion: Treatment, stages of breast cancer, and marital status were improved while smoking habits worsen the time to first cure of breast cancer. To mitigate breast cancer diseases awareness should be given for the community on identified factors

Background Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancers worldwide. It is a cancer that develops from breast tissue and most common invasive cancer in women. Recurrent events data have been increasingly important in clinical studies where individuals experience an event more than once and it is a major clinical indicator, which represents the principal cause of breast cancer-related deaths. The aim of the study was to investigate determinants of the recurrence of breast cancer. Methods To reach the aim, 421 women with breast cancer were included in the study based on data taken from medical record card of patients enrolled starting from 1st January 2013 to 30th January 2019. A retrospective study has been applied to obtain data on women breast cancer that recorded in oncology department of Tikur Anbessa specialized Hospital. Unmeasured shared similarities due to the impact of multiple events were modeled using a random effect. Cox-PH model and Shared frailty model were used to identify which factor was significantly affecting the recurrence of breast cancer. Results From the total of 997 recurrent events, about 609 (61.1%) of them experienced recurrence of breast cancer. The shared log-normal frailty model was chosen as the best fit for this breast cancer data set based on the value of Likelihood cross validation criterion. From the result of shared log-normal frailty model age, stage of breast cancer, tumor size, histology grade, breast feeding and oral contraceptives were significantly associated with recurrence of women breast cancer. Conclusion generally shared log-normal frailty model shows that the stage (II, III, IV), tumor size ((3-5) cm, >5 cm), histology grade (poorly differentiated) and oral contraceptive were significantly increases the risk of recurrence of breast cancer. While, breast feeding was significantly decreases the risk of recurrence of breast cancer. It is recommended that policy maker, ministry of health and Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital are expected to make interventions based on these hazardous groups for recurrence of breast cancer.

This study examined the acceptability of the COVID-19 vaccines and measured adherence to non-pharmaceutical interventions among employees in public transportations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In a public transportation company-based cross-sectional study, a self-administered questionnaire or a structured face-to-face interview was used to obtain information about willingness to get vaccinated, adherence to recommended non-pharmaceutical interventions, and source and quality of information about COVID-19 vaccines. Overall, 23.8% of 412 responding employees were willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. A majority (75.2%) never used facemasks, had poor knowledge about COVID-19 vaccines (82.3%), and had the opinion not to be susceptible to COVID-19 (81.1%). Better education increased the odds of being willing to get vaccinated (OR = 3.28, CI: (1.24–8.63)), male sex (OR = 2.45 (1.08–5.58)), history of chronic disease (OR = 3.01 (1.38–6.56)), watching TV for information on COVID-19 (OR = 14.79 (2.53–86.62)) or considering COVID-19, a severe disease (OR = 9.12 (3.89–21.35)). In addition, the opinion that vaccination can prevent COVID-19, trust in the vaccines, and assuming COVID-19 has an impact at the workplace increased the odds to accept vaccination significantly. In contrast, poor knowledge about the COVID-19 vaccines reduced accepting vaccination significantly (OR = 0.20 (0.09–0.44)). Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines among public transportations workers in Addis Ababa is very low, which may be due to insufficient knowledge about the vaccines, cultural factors, religious beliefs, and a lack of or distorted information about the disease. Therefore, stakeholders should provide credible and tailored information to transportation workers on the severity and impact of COVID-19 and inform them about the effectiveness of the vaccines.