BackgroundExclusive breastfeeding is defined as feeding an infant breast milk only, for the first six months. In Ethiopia, more than half of infants do not receive exclusive breastfeeding. Workplace barriers contribute to these low rates of exclusive breastfeeding practices. Understanding the sociodemographic, health related, behavioral and economic factors is crucial to promote the practice of exclusive breastfeeding in Ethiopia. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the extent of exclusive breastfeeding practice and associated factors among employed and unemployed mothers with children of age 7–12 months in Gondar town, northwest Ethiopia, 2015.MethodsA community based comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in October 2015. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 649 eligible mothers with children age 7–12 months during the study period. A structured and pretested interviewer administered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Three logistic regression models: whole sample, employed and not employed, were fitted.ResultsA total of 649 (333 unemployed and 316 employed) mothers were interviewed. The mean duration of mothers to exclusively breastfeed was 4.77 months (± 1.36 Standard Deviation [SD]). Exclusive breastfeeding was higher among unemployed 48.0% with 95% Confidence Interval (CI) (42.0%, 54.0%) than employed (20.9%) with 95% CI (16.0%, 25.0%). Parity of three children and above (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] = 3.48), and having social support (AOR = 3.45) were positively associated with exclusive breastfeeding while poor knowledge (AOR = 0.30), wealth index of the medium level (AOR = 0.38) were negatively associated among employed mothers. In the case of unemployed mothers, vaginal delivery (AOR = 2.60) and having social support (AOR = 3.03) were positively associated with exclusive breastfeeding while, poor knowledge (AOR = 0.28), and not having antenatal care (AOR = 0.56) were negatively associated.ConclusionsThe overall exclusive breastfeeding practice of mothers was low. However, unemployed mothers breastfeed more than employed mothers. Providing a special support for employed mothers and revising either the legislation of the two month postpartum maternity leave or applying different alternatives is recommended.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13006-017-0118-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundRegular utilization of maternal health care services reduces maternal morbidity and mortality. This study assessed the maternal health care seeking behavior and associated factors of reproductive age women in rural villages of Haramaya district, East Ethiopia.MethodsCommunity based cross sectional study supplemented with qualitative data was conducted in Haramaya district from November 15 to Decemeber 30, 2015. A total of 561 women in reproductive age group and who gave birth in the last 2 years were randomly included. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions model was used to identify the associated factors. Odds ratios with 95% CI were used to measure the strength of association.ResultMaternal health care service seeking of women was found as; antenatal care 74.3% (95% CI; 72.5, 76.14), attending institutional delivery 28.7% (95% CI; 26.8, 30.6) and postnatal care 22.6% (95% CI; 20.84, 24.36). Knowledge of pregnancy complications, Educational status, and religion of women were found to be significantly associated with antenatal health care, delivery and postnatal health care service seeking behaviours triangulated with individual, institutional and socio-cultural qualitative data.ConclusionThe maternal health care service seeking behavior of women in the study area was low. Educational status of the women, birth order and knowledge about pregnancy complications were the major factors associated with maternal health care service seeking behavior Focused health education with kind and supportive health care provider counseling will improve the maternal health care seeking behaviors of women.

BackgroundChildren in developing countries are highly vulnerable to impaired physical growth because of poor dietary intake, lack of appropriate care, and repeated infections. This study aimed at assessing the prevalence of stunting and associated factors among children 6–59 months of age in Libo-kemekem district, northwest Ethiopia.MethodsA community based cross sectional study was conducted in Libo-Kemekem from October 15 to December 15, 2015. The multistage sampling technique was employed to select 1,320 children aged 6-59months. Data were collected by trained community health extension workers under regular supervision. Data were entered into EPI-Info version 3.5.1, and height for age was converted to Z-score with ENA-SMART software. Data were then exported to SPSS version 20 for descriptive and binary logistic regression analysees. The significance of associations was determined at p<0.05.ResultsOut of 1287 children included in the analysis, 49.4% (95% CI: 46.7%–52.3%) were found to be stunted. In the multivariate analysis, increased child age [AOR = 6.31, 95%CI: (3.65, 10.91)], family size of six and above [AOR = 1.77, 95%CI: (1.35, 2.32)] were positively associated with stunting, while, fathers with secondary school education [AOR = 0.50, 95%CI: (0.30, 0.81)], farmers as household heads [AOR = 0.56, 95%CI: (0.38, 0.84)] and self-employed parents as household head [AOR = 0.45, 95% CI: (0.28, 0.72)] were found to be preventive factors.ConclusionThe prevalence of stunting was high in the study area. We found that stunting was significantly correlated with child age, occupational status of household head, family size, and fathers’ education. Therefore, intervention focusing on supporting housewives, family planning, and education on child feeding and nutrition should be implemented.

BackgroundDiabetic sensory neuropathy is a common form of microvascular complication among diabetic patients. The swiftly growing population of people living with diabetes in Ethiopia and lack of elaborated scientific data on peripheral sensory neuropathy among diabetic population in Ethiopia prompted this work. This study was set out to assess the enormity and associated factors of peripheral sensory neuropathy among diabetes patients attending chronic illness clinic of Felege Hiwot Regional Referral Hospital, Bahr Dar, Northwest Ethiopia.MethodsAn institution based cross-sectional study was conducted at Felege Hiwot Referral Hospital chronic illness clinic using Michigan neuropathy screening instrument tool for diabetic peripheral sensory neuropathy on 408 diabetic patients during 2016. Data were collected using interview, patient record review, anthropometric measurements and physical examination. Both bivariate and multivariate binary logistic regression was employed to identify factors associated with peripheral sensory neuropathy. Odds ratios with their 95% CI and P value less than 0.05 used to determine statistically significant associations.ResultsA total of 368 patients were included with the mean age of 49 ± 14.3 years. The overall prevalence of Peripheral Sensory Neuropathy was found to be 52.2%. The major associated factors identified by multivariate analysis were age >50 years: AOR: 3.0 CI [1.11, 7.89]; overweight and obese: AOR: 7.3 CI [3.57, 14.99]; duration of DM: AOR: 3.4 CI [1.75, 6.60]; not involved in physical exercise: AOR: 4.8 CI [1.90, 7.89]; male gender: AOR: 2.4 CI [1.18, 5.05].ConclusionAlmost half of the diabetic patients who attended Felege Hiwot regional referral hospital during study period were found to present with peripheral sensory neuropathy. Socio-demographic and bio characteristics like patients age, Body Mass Index, level of physical activity and marital status were significantly associated with diabetic peripheral sensory neuropathy.

Although less well-recognized than for other infectious diseases, heterogeneity is a defining feature of tuberculosis (TB) epidemiology. To advance toward TB elimination, this heterogeneity must be better understood and addressed. Drivers of heterogeneity in TB epidemiology act at the level of the infectious host, organism, susceptible host, environment, and distal determinants. These effects may be amplified by social mixing patterns, while the variable latent period between infection and disease may mask heterogeneity in transmission. Reliance on notified cases may lead to misidentification of the most affected groups, as case detection is often poorest where prevalence is highest. Assuming that average rates apply across diverse groups and ignoring the effects of cohort selection may result in misunderstanding of the epidemic and the anticipated effects of control measures. Given this substantial heterogeneity, interventions targeting high-risk groups based on location, social determinants, or comorbidities could improve efficiency, but raise ethical and equity considerations.

We performed a systematic review and meta-analyses of studies assessing tuberculosis (TB) patient-related risk factors for transmission of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Meta-analyses were conducted for sputum smear-positivity, lung cavitation and HIV seropositivity of index patients with both crude and adjusted odds ratios (AORs) pooled using random effect models. Thirty-seven studies were included in the review. We found that demographic characteristics such as age and sex were not significant risk factors, while behaviours such as smoking and alcohol intake were associated with infectiousness although inconsistently. Treatment delay of >28 days was a significant predictor of greater infectiousness. Contacts of sputum smear-positive index patients were found to be more likely to be infected than contacts of sputum smear-negative patients, with a pooled AOR of 2.15 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.47-3.17, I 2 = 38%). Similarly, contacts of patients with the cavitary disease were around twice as likely to be infected as contacts of patients without cavitation (pooled AOR 1.9, 95% CI 1.26-2.84, I 2 = 63%). In contrast, HIV seropositive patients were associated with few contact infections than HIV seronegative patients (AOR 0.45, 95% CI 0.26-0.80, I 2 = 52%). In conclusion, behavioural and clinical characteristics of TB patients can be used to identify highly infectious patients for targeted interventions.

BackgroundIn current epidemiology of tuberculosis (TB), heterogeneity in infectiousness among TB patients is a challenge, which is not well studied. We aimed to quantify this heterogeneity and the presence of “super-spreading” events that can assist in designing optimal public health interventions.MethodsTB epidemiologic investigation data notified between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2015 from Victoria, Australia were used to quantify TB patients’ heterogeneity in infectiousness and super-spreading events. We fitted a negative binomial offspring distribution (NBD) for the number of secondary infections and secondary active TB disease each TB patient produced. The dispersion parameter, k, of the NBD measures the level of heterogeneity, where low values of k (e.g. k < 1) indicate over-dispersion. Super-spreading was defined as patients causing as many or more secondary infections as the 99th centile of an equivalent homogeneous distribution. Contact infection was determined based on a tuberculin skin test (TST) result of ≥10 mm. A NBD model was fitted to identify index characteristics that were associated with the number of contacts infected and risk ratios (RRs) were used to quantify the strength of this association.ResultsThere were 4190 (2312 pulmonary and 1878 extrapulmonary) index TB patients and 18,030 contacts. A total of 15,522 contacts were tested with TST, of whom 3213 had a result of ≥10 mm. The dispersion parameter, k for secondary infections was estimated at 0.16 (95%CI 0.14–0.17) and there were 414 (9.9%) super-spreading events. From the 3213 secondary infections, 2415 (75.2%) were due to super-spreading events. There were 226 contacts who developed active TB disease and a higher level of heterogeneity was found for this outcome than for secondary infection, with k estimated at 0.036 (95%CI 0.025–0.046). In regression analyses, we found that infectiousness was greater among index patients found by clinical presentation and those with bacteriological confirmation.ConclusionTB transmission is highly over dispersed and super-spreading events are responsible for a substantial majority of secondary infections. Heterogeneity of transmission and super-spreading are critical issues to consider in the design of interventions and models of TB transmission dynamics.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12879-019-3870-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background Tuberculosis (TB) natural history remains poorly characterised and new investigations are impossible as it would be unethical to follow up TB patients without treatment. Methods We considered the reports identified in a previous systematic review of studies from the pre-chemotherapy era, and extracted detailed data on mortality over time. We used a Bayesian framework to estimate the rates of TB-induced mortality and self-cure. A hierarchical model was employed to allow estimates to vary by cohort. Inference was performed separately for smear-positive TB (SP-TB) and smear-negative TB (SN-TB). Results We included 41 cohorts of SP-TB patients and 19 cohorts of pulmonary SN-TB patients in the analysis. The median estimates of the TB-specific mortality rates were 0.389 year-1 (0.335-0.449, 95% credible interval) and 0.025 year-1 (0.017-0.035) for SP-TB and SN-TB patients, respectively. The estimates for self-recovery rates were 0.231year-1 (0.177-0.288) and 0.130 year-1 (0.073-0.209) for SP-TB and SN-TB patients, respectively. These rates correspond to average durations of untreated TB of 1.57 years (1.37-1.81) and 5.35 years (3.42-8.23) for SP-TB and SN-TB, respectively, when assuming a non-TB-related mortality rate of 0.014 year-1 (i.e. a 70-year life expectancy). Conclusions TB-specific mortality rates are around 15 times higher for SP-TB than for SN-TB patients. This difference was underestimated dramatically in previous TB modelling studies, raising concerns about the accuracy of the associated predictions. Despite being less infectious, SN-TB may be responsible for equivalent numbers of secondary infections as SP-TB due to its much longer duration.