Background: Critical care is a multidisciplinary and interprofessional specialty devoted to treating patients who already have or are at danger of developing acute, life-threatening organ dysfunction. Due to the higher disease load and mortality from preventable illness, patient outcomes in intensive care units are challenging in settings with inadequate resources. This study aimed to determine factors associated with outcomes of pediatric patients admitted to intensive care units. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Wolaita Sodo and Hawassa University teaching hospitals in southern Ethiopia. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 25. Normality tests using the Shapiro–Wilk and Kolmogorov–Smirnov data were normally distributed. The frequency, percentage, and cross-tabulation of the different variables were then determined. Finally, the magnitude and associated factors were first analyzed using binary logistic regression and then multivariate logistic regression. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05. Results: A total of 396 Pediatric ICU patients were included in this study, and 165 (41.7%) deaths were recorded. The odds of patients from urban areas (AOR = 45%, CI 95%: 8%, 67% p-value = 0.025) were less likely to die than those in rural areas. Patients with co morbidities (AOR = 9.4, CI 95%: 4.5, 19.7, p = 0.000) were more likely to die than pediatric patients with no co-morbidities. Patients admitted with Acute respiratory distress syndrome (AOR = 12.86, CI 95%: 4.3, 39.2, p = 0.000) were more likely to die than those with not. Pediatric patients on mechanical ventilation (AOR = 3, CI 95%: 1.7, 5.9, p = 0.000) more likely to die than not mechanically ventilated. Conclusion: Mortality of paediatric ICU patients was high (40.7%) in this study. Co-morbid disease, residency, the use of inotropes, and the length of ICU stay were all statistically significant predictors of death.

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the pooled prevalence of active trachoma among 1–9 years old children in Ethiopia. Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis were employed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews. Data sources: Medline/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, African Journal of Online and Google scholar databases were systematically explored to find studies published in English until July 2023. Eligibility criteria: The following criteria apply: (1) condition (Co): studies examined the prevalence of trachoma among children (1–9) years old; (2) context (Co): studies conducted in Ethiopia; (3) population (Pop): studies that were done among children (1–9) years old; (4) study type: observational studies and (5) language: studies published in English. Data extraction and synthesis: The data were extracted using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. DerSimonian-Laird random effect model was used to estimate the pooled prevalence of active trachoma among 1–9 years old children. Cochrane Q-tests and I ² statistics were used across studies to assess heterogeneity. To identify possible publication bias, Egger’s test was performed. Primary outcome: Prevalence of active trachoma among children aged (1-9 years old)". Results: Overall, a total of 42 articles with 235 005 study participants were included in the final analysis. The estimated pooled prevalence of active trachoma using random effect model was 24% (95% CI 20% to 27%). The subgroup analysis by region revealed that the highest prevalence of trachoma was 36% (95% CI 13% to 58%) in the Tigray region, and publication year revealed the prevalence of trachoma was decreasing from 32% to 19% after 2015. Conclusion: In this review, the pooled prevalence of active trachoma was found to be high in Ethiopia compared with WHO threshold level. This underscores the need for increased focus on high-risk age groups to decrease trachoma and to achieve the elimination of trachoma from the country by 2030.

Objective To determine the association between health insurance coverage and under-five mortality in Ethiopia using data from the 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS). Methods The current study used a total of 10 641 under-five children from the 2016 EDHS. To identify the predictors, the Gompertz inverse-Gaussian shared frailty model was fitted. The theta value, Akaike Information Criteria and Bayesian Information Criteria were applied for model evaluation, and variables with p values less than 0.2 were included in the multivariable analysis. The strength and statistical significance of the associations were demonstrated by reporting the adjusted HR (AHR) with a 95% CI in the multivariable Gompertz inverse-Gaussian shared frailty model. Results According to the study’s findings, 96.46% of the children were born to mothers not covered by health insurance. The study found that health insurance coverage was significantly associated with a lower risk of under-five mortality (not covered: AHR=0.13; 95% CI 0.02, 0.95). Other factors that showed significant associations with under-five mortality include place of residency, family size, twin status, place of delivery and preceding birth interval. Conclusion The findings indicate that health insurance coverage in Ethiopia is significantly associated with a lower risk of mortality among children under five. However, coverage remains low among mothers of these children, highlighting an urgent need for policies and interventions aimed at expanding health insurance coverage and addressing key determinants of child health to reduce under-five mortality and improve child survival outcomes. Addressing gaps in health insurance and other contributing factors is vital for creating effective strategies to lower under-five mortality rates.

Background. Countries in the world have been experiencing the ongoing impact and spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) virus pandemic. The health and financial burden of the pandemic has prompted the need for timely and effective vaccination to be considered as the best strategy for controlling disease transmission. However, vaccine acceptability remains an area of concern in developing countries like Ethiopia. Objective. To assess attitude, hesitancy in the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, and associated factors among health science students at Wolaita Sodo University. Methods. A triangulated mixed-method study was conducted. Quantitative data were entered into SPSS Windows version 25 for analysis, and the qualitative data were transcribed using open code version 4.3. A binary logistic regression model was used to establish the association between dependent and independent variables. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to measure the strengths of the association. Thematic approach was used for qualitative data analysis. Results. A total of 352 students participated in this study. Having family members who were infected with COVID-19, information about COVID-19 vaccine, the need for a vaccine with the level of concern, intention to take COVID-19 vaccine, and academic year were strongly associated with vaccine acceptability. Graduating class and other senior students were about 4 and 2 times more likely to accept vaccination as compared to freshman-year students (AOR = 4.128; 95% CI: 1.351–12.610; ) and (AOR = 2.195; 95% CI: 1.182–4.077; value = 0.013), respectively. Even if 67% of students had a good attitude towards the vaccine, 56% of the students hesitated to take the vaccine. Conclusion. The majority of respondents had a constructive attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccine, and only a few of them were vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. It is of utmost importance to design an evidence-based strategy to increase the uptake of vaccination for healthcare students and other nonhealth science students in universities.

Introduction Self-report is one of the easiest, cheapest and most widely used methods of collecting data about individuals’ health and risk factor status. Many health studies use self-reported data to assess the prevalence of given risk factors or health behaviors in the community. The objective of this study was to determine the level of perceived morbidity, treatment seeking behavior and associated factors using nationally representative self-reported morbidity data. Methods This study was embedded from a community based, national representative survey which was conducted from September 27 and December 20, 2022 in ten regions and two city administrations. Data collection in the eleventh region, i.e., Tigray region, was carried out separately from December 28, 2023 to February 14, 2024, due to contextual constraints. The survey covered 441 enumeration areas within 11 regional states and two city administrations. A two-stage stratified cluster sampling was employed to select the eligible households and a total of 9,157 household were selected. Data were collected through face-to-face interview with structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics such as frequency with percentages and mean with standard deviations were employed to describe participants’ characteristics. Bivariate analysis was conducted to assess the association between treatment seeking behavior and independent variables. Mixed effects logistic regression was employed to determine predictors of treatment seeking behavior. Results A total of 2030 (18.02%) household heads experienced at least one perceived morbidity in the past 12 months prior to the survey date. Of these, 776(16.21%) were urban and 1254(18.71%) were rural residents. About 1793(89.4% with 95%CI: 3.76, 3.80) sought treatment to their perceived morbidity. In the multivariable analysis, Afar (AOR=0.47; 95%CI: 0.35, 0.64), Amhara(AOR=0.45; 95%CI: 0.33, 0.61), Oromia(AOR=0.26; 95%CI:0.18, 0.38), Ethiopia Somali(AOR=0.31; 95%CI: 0.21, 0.46), Benishangul-Gumuz (AOR=0.13; 95%CI: 0.09, 0.19), SNNPR(AOR=0.51; 95%CI: 0.37, 0.70), Sidama(AOR=0.59; 95%CI: 0.40, 0.87), South west-Ethiopia(AOR=0.23; 95%CI: 15, 35), Harari(AOR=0.29; 95%CI: 19, 45), and Dire Dawa(AOR=0.80; 95%CI: 0.53, 1.00) were found to be less likely to seek treatment to their perceived morbidity compared to Tigray regional state while Gambela was 2.7 (95%CI:2.07, 3.63) times more likely to seek treatment compared to Tigray regional state. Other factors associated with treatment seeking behavior were being male (AOR, 1.2; 95%CI: 1.00, 1.37), own agricultural land (AOR=1.6; 95%CI: 1.37, 1.80), safety net beneficiaries (AOR=1.5; 95%CI: 1.27, 1.86), self-rated health status (very poor, AOR=2.4; 95%CI: 1.53, 3.90; poor, AOR=5.6; 95%CI: 4.28, 7.44; Neutral, AOR=2.9; 95%CI: 2.21, 3.68; Good, AOR=1.9; 95%CI: 1.55, 2.40) showed statistically significant association. Conclusion This study revealed that majority of the participants sought treatment from health facility for their perceived illness. However, there were significant disparities across the regions and participant characteristics. Thus, the study finding underscores the need for targeted interventions to address inequalities and identified barriers to enhance equitable health care utilization across the regions.