National levels of personal health-care access and quality can be approximated by measuring mortality rates from causes that should not be fatal in the presence of effective medical care (ie, amenable mortality). Previous analyses of mortality amenable to health care only focused on high-income countries and faced several methodological challenges. In the present analysis, we use the highly standardised cause of death and risk factor estimates generated through the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) to improve and expand the quantification of personal health-care access and quality for 195 countries and territories from 1990 to 2015. We mapped the most widely used list of causes amenable to personal health care developed by Nolte and McKee to 32 GBD causes. We accounted for variations in cause of death certification and misclassifications through the extensive data standardisation processes and redistribution algorithms developed for GBD. To isolate the effects of personal health-care access and quality, we risk-standardised cause-specific mortality rates for each geography-year by removing the joint effects of local environmental and behavioural risks, and adding back the global levels of risk exposure as estimated for GBD 2015. We employed principal component analysis to create a single, interpretable summary measure-the Healthcare Quality and Access (HAQ) Index-on a scale of 0 to 100. The HAQ Index showed strong convergence validity as compared with other health-system indicators, including health expenditure per capita (r=0·88), an index of 11 universal health coverage interventions (r=0·83), and human resources for health per 1000 (r=0·77). We used free disposal hull analysis with bootstrapping to produce a frontier based on the relationship between the HAQ Index and the Socio-demographic Index (SDI), a measure of overall development consisting of income per capita, average years of education, and total fertility rates. This frontier allowed us to better quantify the maximum levels of personal health-care access and quality achieved across the development spectrum, and pinpoint geographies where gaps between observed and potential levels have narrowed or widened over time. Between 1990 and 2015, nearly all countries and territories saw their HAQ Index values improve; nonetheless, the difference between the highest and lowest observed HAQ Index was larger in 2015 than in 1990, ranging from 28·6 to 94·6. Of 195 geographies, 167 had statistically significant increases in HAQ Index levels since 1990, with South Korea, Turkey, Peru, China, and the Maldives recording among the largest gains by 2015. Performance on the HAQ Index and individual causes showed distinct patterns by region and level of development, yet substantial heterogeneities emerged for several causes, including cancers in highest-SDI countries; chronic kidney disease, diabetes, diarrhoeal diseases, and lower respiratory infections among middle-SDI countries; and measles and tetanus among lowest-SDI countries. While the global HAQ Index average rose from 40·7 (95% uncertainty interval, 39·0-42·8) in 1990 to 53·7 (52·2-55·4) in 2015, far less progress occurred in narrowing the gap between observed HAQ Index values and maximum levels achieved; at the global level, the difference between the observed and frontier HAQ Index only decreased from 21·2 in 1990 to 20·1 in 2015. If every country and territory had achieved the highest observed HAQ Index by their corresponding level of SDI, the global average would have been 73·8 in 2015. Several countries, particularly in eastern and western sub-Saharan Africa, reached HAQ Index values similar to or beyond their development levels, whereas others, namely in southern sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and south Asia, lagged behind what geographies of similar development attained between 1990 and 2015. This novel extension of the GBD Study shows the untapped potential for personal health-care access and quality improvement across the development spectrum. Amid substantive advances in personal health care at the national level, heterogeneous patterns for individual causes in given countries or territories suggest that few places have consistently achieved optimal health-care access and quality across health-system functions and therapeutic areas. This is especially evident in middle-SDI countries, many of which have recently undergone or are currently experiencing epidemiological transitions. The HAQ Index, if paired with other measures of health-system characteristics such as intervention coverage, could provide a robust avenue for tracking progress on universal health coverage and identifying local priorities for strengthening personal health-care quality and access throughout the world. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is regarded an important public health and human rights issue, characterized by physical, sexual or emotional abuse. Globally more than one in three women report physical or sexual violence by their intimate partners. Though the association between IPV and depression is known, we found no study investigating depression as a risk factor for IPV and very few studies using standard tools in assessing both IPV and depression among pregnant women. To measure the prevalence of IPV and depression during pregnancy and assess the association between IPV and depression and other determinants. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 589 pregnant women living in Wondo-Genet district, southern Ethiopia. IPV experience was assessed using a structured questionnaire of the World Health Organization (WHO), and maternal depression was measured by the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). Descriptive statistics were computed and multivariable logistic regression was carried out to estimate risk and adjust for confounders. The overall prevalence of IPV was 21% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 18.1–24.7). After adjusting for potential confounders, increased risk of IPV remained among rural women (adjusted odds ratio[AOR] = 2.09; 95%CI = 1.06–4.09), women who had parental exposure to IPV (AOR = 14.00; 95%CI = 6.43–30.48), women whose pregnancy was not desired (AOR = 9.64; 95%CI = 3.44–27.03), women whose husbands used alcohol (AOR = 17.08; 95%CI = 3.83–76.19), women with depression (AOR = 4.71; 95%CI = 1.37–16.18) and women with low social support (AOR = 13.93; 95%CI = 6.98–27.77). The prevalence of antenatal depressive symptom (with EPDS score above 13) was 6.8% (95% CI 6.2–11.3). Increased risk of depression was found among women who had been exposed to IPV (AOR = 17.60; 95%CI = 6.18–50.10) and whose husbands use alcohol (AOR = 3.31; 95%CI = 1.33–8.24). One in five pregnant women experienced IPV and it was strongly associated with depression. Screening for IPV and depression at antenatal visits with referral to relevant care and service is recommended.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends using the partograph to follow labour and delivery, with the objective to improve health care and reduce maternal and foetal morbidity and death. The partograph consists of a graphic representation of labour and is an excellent visual resource to analyze cervix, uterine contraction and foetal presentation in relation to time. However, poor utilization of the partograph was found in the public health institutions which reflect poor monitoring of mothers in labour and/or poor pregnancy outcome.

Globally, there was an estimated number of 287,000 maternal deaths in 2010. Eighty five percent (245,000) of these deaths occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southern Asia. Among the causes of these deaths were obstructed and prolonged labour which could be prevented by cost effective and affordable health interventions like the use of the partograph. The Use of the partograph is a well-known best practice for quality monitoring of labour and subsequent prevention of obstructed and prolonged labour. However, a number of cases of obstructed labour do happen in health facilities due to poor quality of intrapartum care.

The magnitude of precancerous cervical cancer lesions as well as invasive cervical cancer is higher in HIV-infected women than non HIV-infected women. Thus, screening targeting HIV-infected women is being undertaken in developing countries, including Ethiopia. However, data on the prevalence and determinants of precancerous cervical cancer lesion among HIV-infected women in southern Ethiopia is lacking. Thus, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of and factors associated with precancerous cervical cancer lesion among HIV- infected women in southern Ethiopia. A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2012 to February 2013 among HIV-infected women in Southern Ethiopia. Four hundred forty eight HIV-infected women who had been screened and treated for precancerous cervical cancer lesion were included in the study. Data were collected by using structured and pretested questionnaire. Visual inspection with acetic acid was applied for screening and treatment. SPSS version 16.0 was used for data entry and analysis. Logistic regression analysis was fitted and odds ratios with 95% Confidence intervals and p-values were computed to identify factors associated with precancerous cervical cancer lesion. Out of 448 study participants, 99 (22.1%) were found to be positive for precancerous cervical cancer. Being currently on highly active antiretroviral treatment (AOR=0.52, 95%CI: 0.35, 0.92), history of sexually transmitted disease (AOR=2.30, 95%CI: 1.23, 4.29) and having only one lifetime sexual partner (AOR=0.33, 95%CI: 0.20, 0.56) were factors associated with precancerous cervical cancer lesion. The prevalence of precancerous cervical cancer lesion among HIV-infected women in southern Ethiopia was found to be high. Intervention to access all HIV-infected women like scaling up the limited services and awareness creation should be undertaken. Measures aimed at preventing the acquisition and transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and reducing the number of sexual partners are required. Besides, early initiation of highly active antiretroviral treatment is important.

Emergence of antimicrobial resistance by Staphylococcus aureus has limited treatment options against its infections. The purpose of this study was to determine the pooled prevalence of resistance to different antimicrobial agents by S. aureus in Ethiopia. Web-based search was conducted in the databases of PubMed, Google Scholar, Hinari, Scopus and the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) to identify potentially eligible published studies. Required data were extracted and entered into Excel spread sheet. Statistical analyses were performed using Stata version 13.0. The metaprop Stata command was used to pool prevalence values. Twenty-one separate meta-analysis were done to estimate the pooled prevalence of the resistance of S. aureus to twenty-one different antimicrobial agents. Heterogeneity among the studies was assessed using the I² statistic and chi-square test. Publication bias was assessed using Egger’s test. Because of significant heterogeneity amongst the studies, the random effects model was used to pool prevalence values. The electronic database search yielded 1317 studies among which 45 studies met our inclusion criteria. Our analyses demonstrated very high level of resistance to amoxicillin (77% [95% confidence interval (CI): 68%, 0.85%]), penicillin (76% [95% CI: 67%, 84%]), ampicillin (75% [95% CI: 65%, 85%]), tetracycline (62% [95% CI: 55%, 68%]), methicillin (47% [95% CI: 33%, 61%]), cotrimoxaziole (47% [95% CI: 40%, 55%]), doxycycline (43% [95% CI: 26%, 60%]), and erythromycin (41% [95% CI: 29%, 54%]). Relatively low prevalence of resistance was observed with kanamycin (14% [95% CI: 5%, 25%]) and ciprofloxacin (19% [95% CI: 13%, 26%]). The resistance level to vancomycin is 11% 995% CI: (4%, 20%). High heterogeneity was observed for each of the meta-analysis performed (I² ranging from 79.36% to 95.93%; all p-values ≤0.01). Eggers’ test did not show a significant publication bias for all antimicrobial agents except for erythromycin and ampicillin. S. aureus in Ethiopia has gotten notoriously resistant to almost to all of antimicrobial agents in use including, penicillin, cephalosporins, tetracyclines, chloramphenicol, methicillin, vancomycin and sulphonamides. The resistance level to vancomycin is bothersome and requires a due attention. Continued and multidimensional efforts of antimicrobial stewardship program promoting rational use of antibiotics, infection prevention and containment of AMR are urgently needed.