Osteoarthritis is a major cause of disability worldwide, and understanding epidemiological trends in osteoarthritis is critical for public health planning and intervention strategies. This study analyzed the global, regional, and national burden on osteoarthritis utilizing the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021. Trends from 1990 to 2021 were primarily assessed, with projections to 2050 based on demographic changes and historical data. In 2021, 607 (95% UI: 538–671) million people worldwide suffered from osteoarthritis, including 46.6 (95% UI: 41.1–51.6) million new cases, and the DALYs was 21.3 (95% UI: 10.2–42.9) million. Age-standardized incidence, prevalence and DALYs rates increased to 535.00/100,000 (95% UI: 472.38–591.97), 6967.29/100,000 (95% UI: 6180.70–7686.06), and 244.50/100,000 (95% UI: 117.06–493.11), with knee osteoarthritis accounting for more than 56%. Age-standardized rates of osteoarthritis were higher in females than in males. East Asia, South Asia, and Western Europe were the regions and China, India, and the United States were the countries with the highest burdens. In addition, high body-mass index led to 4.43 (95% UI: -0.42–12.34) million DALYs, with an increase of 205.10%. Bayesian age-period cohort projections showed that the burden of osteoarthritis would continue to rise from 2021 to 2050. As an ageing population and rising obesity rates, the burden of osteoarthritis will continue to rise, with females and the middle-aged and older age groups being the current populations of concern. Awareness-raising, early detection, and effective management are essential to reduce the burden of osteoarthritis in the coming decades, especially among vulnerable groups.

Background: Maintaining quality of vaccines is one of the main challenges of immunization programs in Ethiopia. The objectiveof this study is to assess the factor affecting vaccine cold chain management practice in immunization health institutions in East Gojam zone of Amhara region, Ethiopia.Method: An institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from March to April 2017 in ten districts of East Gojam zone of Amhara Region. Descriptive statistics and Logistic regression analysis were carried out to identify factors related to the practice of cold chain management.Result: Among 60 health institutions, only 46(76.7%) had functional refrigerators. Twenty-one (35%) had a functional generator for backup service and 28(46.6%) had a car/motorbike for transportation of vaccines in case of refrigerator/power failure. Twenty-nine (48.3%) had known the correct vaccine storage temperature (2 °C – 8 °C) in the refrigerator and the results of this study revealed that only 23(38.3%) of respondents had sufficient knowledge about vaccine cold chain management. The finding of this study also revealed that 35(58.3%) had appropriate vaccine cold chain management practice and the rest 25(41.7%) had inappropriate practice. Logistic regression showed us the knowledge gap and profession were significantly associated with vaccine cold chain management practice atP < 0.05.Conclusion: This study indicates that there was a knowledge gap of health workers who are working on cold chain management. There is an urgent need to improve knowledge and practice on cold chain management through improved supervision and training at a different level of health care system.

Background: In Ethiopia, cervical cancer is the second most frequent cancer among women aged 15 to 44 years old. Cervical cancer screening is an effective measure to enhance the early detection of cervical cancer for prevention. However, the magnitude of cervical cancer screening is less than 1%. This study aimed to determine the influence of sociodemographic characteristics and related factors on screening. Method: A hospital-based cross-sectional study has been conducted from July to September 2017. Data have been collected using interviewer-administered questioner among 425 women (18–49 years age) who visited the family health department at St. Paul’s Hospital. Descriptive statistics, chi-square, univariate and multivariate logistic regression were used for data analysis. Result: Of the 425 study participants, only 12.2% of women have been screened within the past 3 years. Women in the age range of 40–49 years old were more likely to be screened (36.1%) than women age 18–29 years (8%). Women living in urban were more likely to be screened (15.9%) than women living in rural (3.9%). Other factors including low monthly income, unlikely chance of having cancer, lack of knowledge, and fear test outcome were significantly associated with the low uptake of screening. Conclusion: This study revealed that the uptake of cervical cancer screening was low. Women in the potential target population of cervical cancer screening were just a proportion of all studied age groups and screening in them was more common than in younger women. Besides, rural residence, low monthly income, and lack of knowledge were important predictors for low utilization of cervical cancer screening practice.

Background: Self-medication with antibiotics, which may cause significant antibiotic resistance, is predominant in developing countries. The aim of this study is to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of self-medication with antibiotics among community residents in Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted from June to August 2017. Knowledge-Attitude-Practice questionnaire was developed and distributed to eligible household respondents in Addis Ababa and its surrounding area. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with self-medication with antibiotics. Results: Among the 605 invited participants, 595 respondents were participated in this study (response rate = 98.3%) and 67.3% of the respondents had reported self-medication with antibiotics in the past 6 months. The median score of knowledge about antibiotics was 3 (Inter quarter range: 2–4) of a maximum possible score of 6 and the median score of attitude was 19 (Inter quarter range: 16–22) from a maximum of 29. Self-medication with antibiotics was significantly associated with age, educational status, and average monthly income of the communities. Conclusions: Respondents have inadequate knowledge and inappropriate practice toward rational use of antibiotics. Policies such as restricting the purchase of antibiotics without a medical prescription and educating appropriate use of antibiotics are urgently needed.

Chondroitin sulphate captured an increasing amount of attention in the field of drug delivery systems. Nanoparticles and chondroitin sulphate were combined in different ways to form effective target nanocarriers. The study aimed to evaluate the biomedical application of chondroitin sulphate with nanoparticles in drug delivery systems. We searched PubMed, Google Scholar, and MEDLINE for studies that included data for the application of chondroitin sulphate and nanoparticles in targeting drug delivery published in English up to 25 February 2020. OHAT (Office of Health Assessment and Translation) Risk-of-Bias Tool was used to assessing the quality and risk of bias of each study. We performed a qualitative synthesis of findings from included studies. The toxicity of developed drugs has been evaluated using cell viability percentage and 50% inhibitory concentration of drugs. Twenty original articles reported the application of chondroitin sulphate on drug delivery systems were selected. Drug loading and encapsulation efficiency were from 2% to 16.1% and from 39.50% to 93.97%, respectively. The drug release was fast at start time and followed by a slow and sustain released stage. The risk of bias was rated as high in two out of twenty studies. Most of the studies presented baseline characteristics and outcomes appropriately.

The pathological mechanism of Kashin-Beck disease (KBD), an endemic osteoarthritic disease, remains to be poorly understood. This study was designed to identify signaling pathways and crucial proteins involved in the pathological mechanism of KBD compared with osteoarthritis (OA). The knee cartilage samples were collected from gender- and age-matched KBD (n = 9) and OA (n = 9) patients. After pre-processing, samples were labeled with Tamdem Mass Tags 6plex multiplex kit, and analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Proteomic results were analyzed with gene ontology (GO), Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG), and protein-protein interactions (PPI). The differential abundance proteins from KBD and OA were validated using western blot analysis. As a result, A total number of 375 proteins were identified to have differential abundance between KBD and OA, of which 121 and 254 proteins were observed to be up-regulated or down-regulated in KBD group. GO analysis shows that the differential abundant proteins are associated with cell junction and signal transducer activity from extracellular to intracellular. KEGG pathways enrichment and PPI network indicate four major pathways, including extracellular matrix -receptor interaction, focal adhesion, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)-Protein kinase B (Akt), and Ras signaling pathways were involved in the degeneration of cartilage. Moreover, integrins, laminins, NF-κB and other regulative molecules were found as crucial proteins. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that compared with OA, the differential abundance proteins and signaling pathways may contribute to the occurrence and development of joint damage in KBD. Further investigation of their regulative roles and interaction may provide new insights into the pathological mechanisms and therapeutic targets for KBD.