Harla Journal of Health and Medical Science

Colostrum feeding practice and associated factors among mothers attending child immunization clinic at public healthcare facilities in Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia

2024-08-25T03:41:28-08:00

Background: Colostrum is yellow to orange colored milk produced during a first few days of lactation and it is rich in nutrients and antibodies that have great role in health of the new born baby. Despite the World Health Organization recommends that every new born baby has to feed breast milk with colostrum within one hour of delivery; poor colostrum feeding practice is still a common problem in Ethiopia.
Objective: Assess the practice of colostrum feeding and related factors among women attending a child immunization clinic in governmental health facilities in Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia, in 2022. Method: Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted from February 1–30/2022 in governmental health facilities of Dire Dawa city administrative among 292 mothers with baby less than or equal to 12 months. The data were collected by systematic random sampling technique and analyzed using Statistical Package of Social Sciences 25.0 version. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses was employed to estimate the crude and adjusted odds ratio with confidence interval of 95% and P value of less than 0.05 considered statistically significant.
Result: 68.8% (95% CI: 63.4-74.3) of the mothers had good colostrum feeding practice. Living in an urban area (AOR=2.52, 95% CI=1.08-5.88), having at least a secondary education (AOR=2.79, 95% CI=1.12-6.98), having visited an antenatal clinic in the past (AOR=3.12, 95% CI=1.12-9.21, receiving counseling on when to start breastfeeding (AOR=2.59, 95% CI=1.02-6.59), receiving colostrum feeding counseling (AOR=2.65, 95% CI=1.12-6.30), having a professional attend the birth (AOR=3.20, 95% CI=1.23-8.31), getting information from a professional (AOR=3.89, 95% CI=1.54-9.82), and having good knowledge of colostrum feeding (AOR=3.53, 95% CI=1.56-7.96) were found to be associated with practice of colostrum feeding.
Conclusion: In the present study, even if more than two-thirds of mothers have good practice of colostrum feeding, still its gap is wide with WHO recommendation on timely initiation of BF, with colostrum of more than 80%. Promoting antenatal care visits and maternal education on breastfeeding is recommended for the increasing colostrum feeding practice of the mothers.

Assessment of knowledge, attitude, practice and associated factors towards traditional medicine among health professionals in Dire Dawa, East Ethiopia:

2024-08-25T04:16:41-08:00

Background: The World Health Organization defines traditional medicine (TM) as “health practices, approaches, knowledge, and beliefs applied to diagnose, prevent, and treat disease.” Evidence indicates 80% of the world’s population, including Africa, continue to utilize TM. Unfortunately, studies on TM practices among health professionals in Ethiopia are limited. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, practices, and associated factors towards traditional medicine among healthcare professionals in Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among systematically selected 231 healthcare professionals in April 2018. Data entry and analysis were performed using Epi Data and SPSS version 20, respectively. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to identify these factors. An adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to determine statistical significance.

Results: In this study, 219 health professionals from nine public health facilities (two hospitals and seven health centers) with an age range of 20–52 years were participated. A total of 110 (50.2%) of the health professionals had ever used TM. While 145 (66.2%) had a positive attitude towards TM, and 71.7% had a positive perception on education toward TM. Those who with a positive attitude towards TM were 2.53 times more likely to practice TM than those with a negative attitude (p = 0.002).

Conclusion: A significant proportion of healthcare professionals know traditional medicine (TM) and have a positive view of its practice. However, there is a gap regarding the source of knowledge acquisition, with the majority from their families. Therefore, it is essential to integrate TM into Ethiopia’s formal education and healthcare system.

Prevalence of substance use and associated factors among preparatory school adolescents in Dire Dawa City, eastern Ethiopia:

2024-08-25T04:27:18-08:00

Background: Substance use is a phenomenon which can be observed in different forms all around the world. Its use puts a heavy burden on individuals, families, and society. Substance use at early age is associated with many psychosocial problems like behavior pattern, psychiatric disorder, family system, peer relationship, leisure/recreation and work adjustment in later adulthood life different studies conducted elsewhere reported inconsistent findings and there is lack of evidence in the study area. Objective: To assess the prevalence of substance, use and associated factors among adolescents in Dire Dawa preparatory schools in 2023.

Method: School based cross- sectional study was conducted from Jan 2023 to Jun 2023 among adolescents in government secondary schools in Dire Dawa with a sample size of 417. According to the selection criteria four high schools were selected randomly. The data was collected using a self- administered questioner. Data entry, cleaning and analysis were done using SPSS version 23. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the data. Accordingly, frequency, percentage, graphs used.

Results: A total of 417 subjects were included in the study. The prevalence of substance use among preparatory school adolescents was 35.5%. The most frequently used substance was khat (17.7%) followed by alcoholic beverages 11.0%. The factors sex, availability, and accessibility of substance use, the reasons to use substance and perceived benefit were found to be associated with substance use with AOR and 95% CI of 2.1 (1.17,3.77), 3.3 (1.03,10.96), 6.1 (1.2, 31.5) and 7.0 (1.82, 26.93), respectively. Conclusion: The prevalence of adolescent substance use in Dire Dawa was high when compared to other studies. It’s recommended to the government and school community work to prevent substances use to minimize the availability of substances use around schools.