Introduction In 2014, 159 million under 5 year-old children were stunted (suffered chronic undernutrition) worldwide. Identifying risk factors for stunting among 6 to 24 month-age children in Mekelle City is important for evidence-based interventions. Method Case-Control study design was undertaken in 330 children, from January to February 2016. World Health Organization (WHO) anthropometric software and statistical package for social sciences version 20 were used for analysis. Logistic regression analysis was applied. Result The following were identified as risk factors for stunting: mother’s lack of formal education (adjusted odds ratio (AOR = 6.4)), mother height less than 150cm (AOR = 4.2), mother with a body mass index less than 18.5 kg/m 2 (AOR = 3.8), childbirth weight less than 2.5kg (AOR = 5.3), household with two and above under-five children (AOR = 2.9), a WHO diet diversity score < 4 (AOR = 3.2) and repeated diarrheal episodes (AOR = 5.3). Conclusion The factors associated with stunting among children aged 6 to 24 months are no formal education in mother, mother height less than 150cm, low BMI of the mother, low birth weight, low WHO DDS, number of under 5 children in the household and repeated diarrheal episodes. Nutritional interventions should give emphasis to maternal education, maternal nutrition, childbirth weight, family size, diet diversity, and diarrheal diseases.

Introduction. The incompleteness of medical records is a significant problem that affects the quality of health care services in many hospitals of Ethiopia. Improving the completeness of patient’s records is an important step towards improving the quality of healthcare. Methods. Pre- and postintervention study was conducted to assess improvement of inpatient medical record completeness in Menelik II Referral Hospital from September 2015 to April 2016. Simple random sampling technique was used. Data was collected using data extraction checklist and independent sample t-test was used to compare statistical difference that exists between pre- and postintervention outcomes at confidence interval of 95% and P value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Result. The overall inpatient medical record completeness was found to be 84% after intervention. An enhancement of completeness and reporting of inpatient medical record completeness increased significantly from the baseline 73% to 84% during postintervention evaluation at P value < 0.05. Conclusion and Recommendation. The finding of this project suggests that a simple set of interventions comprising inpatient medical record format and training healthcare provider showed a significant improvement in inpatient medical record completeness. The Quality Officer and Chief Executive Officer of the study hospital are recommended to design and launch intervention programs to improve medical record completeness.

Introduction. Neonatal mortality contributes a higher percentage of infant mortality, especially in developing countries including Ethiopia where the rate of institutional delivery is low. In Ethiopia, scientific evidences on the level of community-based essential newborn care practice were scanty and inconclusive. Objectives. The aim of the study was to assess community-based essential newborn care practices and associated factors among women who have infant<12 months. Methods. A community-based cross-sectional study was employed among 634 randomly selected women who have infant<12 months from June 23, 2017, to August 29, 2017, at Enderta district. Data was collected by a face-to-face interview through structured questionnaires, and it was coded, entered, and cleaned using EpiData version 3.1. Then, the data was exported to SPSS version 21 for analysis. Odds ratios and p value were computed to know the association between the independent variables with the dependent variable. Finally, a variable at p values of p<0.05 was considered statistically significant with the outcome variable. Result. The overall community-based essential newborn care practice was found 40.7%. Educational status (AOR=6.6, 95% CI, 2.49-11.97), previous ANC follow-up (AOR=1.7, 95% CI, 1.2-3.80), weight of the child during birth (AOR=1.3, 95% CI, 1.12-2.98), and place of delivery (AOR=2.1, 95% CI, 1.50-4.63) were found to be significantly associated with community-based essential newborn care. Even though overall newborn practice was found to be good, the cord care practices were found to be poor that indicated there is a need to rise community awareness.

Diarrheal diseases remain the major cause of morbidity and mortality in children under five years of age. Salmonella and Shigella species are among the leading causes of diarrhea in children. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and antimicrobial profiles of Salmonella and Shigella spp. in children less than five years of age with acute diarrhea. A cross sectional study was conducted among 422 children with diarrhea from December 2011 to February 2012. A structured questionnaire was used to collect socio-demographic and clinical data. Identification of Salmonella and Shigella species and antimicrobial susceptibility tests was done following standard microbiology procedures. The overall prevalence of Salmonella and Shigella was 7.8% and 9.5 %, respectively. The isolation rates of S. flexineri, S.dysenteri and S. boydii were 18 (45 %), 12 (30 %) and10 (25 %), respectively. The prevalence of Salmonella and Shigella were not statistically significant along age groups and gender of the children. Most of Salmonella and Shigella were resistant to ampicillin (> 88.7%) and cotrimoxazole (50%).In contrast, 83.3-89.9% of isolates showed susceptible to norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin and gentamicin. More than 90% of the Salmonella and 80% Shigella spp. were multiple drug resistant. High prevalence of Shigella and Salmonella linked with high levels of antimicrobial resistance is a major public health concern in the study area. Continuous surveillance of antimicrobial susceptibility should be done. Ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin and gentamicin appeared to be drugs of choice for empirical treatment of these infections.

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