Articles

Depression remains a neglected public health problem among pregnant women in Northwest Ethiopia

Antenatal depression is highly prevalent but a neglected public health problem in low income countries. It has serious effects on the general health of women, birth outcomes and child health. However, there ha...

Authors: Getnet Mihretie Beyene, Telake Azale, Kassahun Alemu Gelaye and Tadesse Awoke Ayele

Factors associated with length of stay and treatment outcome of Ebola patients treated at an Ebola treatment center in Sierra Leone during the peak period of the West African Ebola outbreak 2013–2016

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the West Africa Ebola epidemic as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern in August 2014. During the outbreak period, there were calls for the affected c...

Authors: Jia Bainga Kangbai, Christian Heumann, Michael Hoelscher, Foday Sahr and Guenter Froeschl

Medication safety knowledge, attitude, and practice among hospital pharmacists in tertiary care hospitals in Saudi Arabia: a multi-center study

Pharmacovigilance (PV) demarcates all actions involving the detection and prevention of adverse drug reactions (ADR) for marketed drugs. However, ADRs are considerably underreported worldwide and continue to b...

Authors: Azizah AL-Mutairi, Isamme AlFayyad, Youssef Altannir and Mohamad Al-Tannir

Health insurance enrollment strategies during the Affordable Care Act (ACA): a scoping review on what worked and for whom

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) provided an opportunity for millions of people in the U.S. to get coverage from the publicly funded Medicaid program or private insurance from the newly established marketplace. H...

Authors: Angelo Ercia, Nga Le and Runguo Wu

Measuring functioning and disability using household surveys: metric properties of the brief version of the WHO and World Bank model disability survey

The Model Disability Survey (MDS) is the current standard recommended by WHO to collect functioning and disability data. Answering calls from countries requesting a version to be implemented as a module that c...

Authors: Carla Sabariego, Carolina Fellinghauer, Lindsay Lee, Aleksandra Posarac, Jerome Bickenbach, Nenad Kostanjsek, Somnath Chatterji, Kaloyan Kamenov and Alarcos Cieza

Trends and socioeconomic factors in smoking and alcohol consumption among Chinese people: evidence from the 2008–2018 National Health Service Surveys in Jiangsu Province

Smoking and excessive drinking are risk factors for many diseases. With the rapid economic development in China, it is important to identify trends in smoking and alcohol consumption and socioeconomic factors ...

Authors: Kehui Liu, Yan Ding, Xiang Lu and Zhonghua Wang

Recommendations to plan a national burden of disease study

The InfAct (Information for Action) project is a European Commission Joint Action on Health Information which has promoted the potential role of burden of disease (BoD) approaches to improve the current European ...

Authors: Romana Haneef, Jürgen Schmidt, Anne Gallay, Brecht Devleesschauwer, Ian Grant, Alexander Rommel, Grant MA Wyper, Herman Van Oyen, Henk Hilderink, Thomas Ziese and John Newton

SARS-CoV-2 PCR and antibody testing for an entire rural community: methods and feasibility of high-throughput testing procedures

Early in the pandemic, inadequate SARS-CoV-2 testing limited understanding of transmission. Chief among barriers to large-scale testing was unknown feasibility, particularly in non-urban areas. Our objective w...

Authors: Ayesha Appa, Gabriel Chamie, Aenor Sawyer, Kimberly Baltzell, Kathryn Dippell, Salu Ribeiro, Elias Duarte, Joanna Vinden, CLIAHUB Consortium, Jonathan Kramer-Feldman, Shahryar Rahdari, Doug MacIntosh, Katherine Nicholson, Jonathan Im, Diane Havlir and Bryan Greenhouse

Socio-economic and geographical inequalities in adolescent fertility rate in Ghana, 1993–2014

Despite public health interventions to control adolescent fertility, it remains high in sub-Saharan Africa. Ghana is one of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa with the highest adolescent fertility rates. We e...

Authors: Bright Opoku Ahinkorah, Eugene Budu, Henry Ofori Duah, Joshua Okyere and Abdul-Aziz Seidu

Factors associated with childhood diarrheal in Ethiopia; a multilevel analysis

Diarrhea is the second cause of child deaths globally. According to World Health Organization reports, in each year it kills more than 525,000 children under-5 years. More than half of these deaths occur in fi...

Authors: Setegn Muche Fenta and Teshager Zerihun Nigussie

Levels of physical activity in four domains and affective wellbeing before and during the Covid-19 pandemic

Latest studies indicated that the general mental health level is low during the pandemic. Probably, this deterioration of the mental health situation is partly due to declines in physical activity. The aim of ...

Authors: Eliane S. Engels, Michael Mutz, Yolanda Demetriou and Anne K. Reimers

The effect of antenatal depression on birth weight among newborns in South Gondar zone, Northwest Ethiopia: a population-based prospective cohort study

There is a high prevalence of antenatal depression and low birth weight (LBW) (< 2.5 kg) in Ethiopia. Prior evidence revealed that the association between antenatal depression and LBW in high- and low-income c...

Authors: Getnet Mihretie Beyene, Telake Azale, Kassahun Alemu Gelaye and Tadesse Awoke Ayele

Establishing a controlled hookworm human infection (CHHI) model for Africa: A report from the stakeholders meeting held in Lambaréné, Gabon, November 10–11, 2019

Hookworm is a major contributor to worldwide disease burden with over 230 million people infected. It has been identified as one of the Neglected Tropical Diseases that can be controlled and even eliminated th...

Authors: Ayodele Alabi, Mosarrof Hussain, Marie-Astrid Hoogerwerf, Christine Ndong Mengome, Moses Egesa, Emmanuella Driciru, Linda J. Wammes, Yvonne C. M. Kruize, Erliyani Sartono, Ayola Akim Adegnika, Peter G. Kremsner, Maria Yazdanbakhsh and Selidji Todagbe Agnandji

Association between health literacy and mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis

To identify the relationship between health literacy (HL) and mortality based on a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Authors: Zhao-ya Fan, Yuan Yang and Fan Zhang

Healthcare workers’ behaviors on infection prevention and control and their determinants during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study based on the theoretical domains framework in Wuhan, China

Infection prevention and control (IPC) measures are crucial to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to explore the levels and determinants of HCWs’ IPC behaviors based on the theoretical domains fram...

Authors: Qiuxia Yang, Xuemei Wang, Qian Zhou, Li Tan, Xinping Zhang and Xiaoquan Lai

Effectiveness of message-framing to improve oral health behaviors and dental plaque among pregnant women

Oral health is considered a prominent factor that contributes to quality of life. Hormonal changes during pregnancy can influence oral health. Message framing can play an important role in oral health. The aim...

Authors: Masoumeh Divdar, Marzieh Araban, Akbar Babaei Heydarabadi, Bahman Cheraghian and L. A. R. Stein

Blood lead and cadmium levels are negatively associated with bone mineral density in young female adults

The organ toxicities of lead and cadmium have been extensively studied; however, studies of their toxic effects on bone remain limited, especially in young adults. The objective of this study was to examine th...

Authors: Jianfeng Lu, Ji Lan, Xiao’e Li and Zhongxin Zhu

Predictors of time-to-death on children in Tigray regional state, Ethiopia: a retrospective cross sectional study

Although, the clinical and socioeconomic condition of Tigray Regional State mothers has been improved along with the decline in the child death rate. However, children’s death rate is still one of the main com...

Authors: Gebru Gebremeskel Gebrerufael and Bsrat Tesfay Hagos

Exploring the socio-economic determinants of educational inequalities in diarrhoea among under-five children in low- and middle-income countries: a Fairlie decomposition analysis

What explains the underlying causes of educational inequalities in diarrhoea among under-five children in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) is poorly exploited, operationalized, studied and understood. T...

Authors: Adeniyi Francis Fagbamigbe, Olukemi Grace Adebola, Natisha Dukhi, Omon Stellamaris Fagbamigbe and Olalekan A. Uthman

Analysis of factors contributing to occupational health inequality in Korea: a cross-sectional study using nationally representative survey data

Despite the consensus that higher occupational classes tend to have better health and lower mortality rates, one study has reported reversed occupational gradients in mortality rates among Korean men after the...

Authors: Eunjeong Noh and Young-Ho Khang

Use of health care services by people with substance use disorders in Belgium: a register-based cohort study

The objective of the study was to describe the frequencies of health-care utilization by people with substance use disorder (SUD), including contacts with general practitioners (GP), psychiatrists, emergency d...

Authors: Luk Van Baelen, Els Plettinckx, Jérôme Antoine, Karin De Ridder, Brecht Devleesschauwer and Lies Gremeaux

Cause of death for patients with breast cancer: discordance between death certificates and medical files, and impact on survival estimates

Registration and coding of cause of death is prone to error since determining the exact underlying condition leading directly to death is challenging. In this study, causes of death from the death certificates...

Authors: Hava Izci, Tim Tambuyzer, Jessica Vandeven, Jérôme Xicluna, Hans Wildiers, Kevin Punie, Nynke Willers, Eva Oldenburger, Els Van Nieuwenhuysen, Patrick Berteloot, Ann Smeets, Ines Nevelsteen, Anne Deblander, Harlinde De Schutter, Patrick Neven, Geert Silversmit…

Epidemiological factors for type 2 diabetes mellitus: evidence from the Global Burden of Disease

The United Nations acknowledged diabetes as an epidemic of the 21st century. Global trends demonstrate a continuing growth in its prevalence at approximately 2.5 % per year. The aim of the study was to analyse...

Authors: Artur Kotwas, Beata Karakiewicz, Paulina Zabielska, Sylwia Wieder-Huszla and Anna Jurczak

Assessment of intention to use contraceptive methods with spatial distributions and associated factors among women in Ethiopia: evidence from EDHS 2016

Modern contraceptive methods have immense influences on the health of mothers and their children. Using contraceptive methods is seen to control family size and unnecessary pregnancies. Considering different f...

Authors: Girma Gilano and Samuel Hailegebreal

Is functional fitness performance a useful predictor of risk of falls among community-dwelling older adults?

Falls among older adults are a serious public health problem. Many studies indicate that positive functional fitness performance decreases the risk of falls. A limited amount of previous study has investigated...

Authors: Hsin-Hung Ho, I-Yao Fang, Yi-Chien Yu, Yi-Ping Huang, I-Ling Kuo, Li-Ting Wang, Ming-Chueh Tsai, Shao-Hsi Chang and Ming-Chun Hsueh

Idiopathic scoliosis and associated factors among school children: a school-based screening in Ethiopia

Early detection of scoliosis is a preface to prevent progression. In resource-constrained countries like Ethiopia, there is a need for a cost-effective reliable solution for screening. The surprising fact is t...

Authors: Moges Gashaw, Balamurugan Janakiraman and Gashaw Jember Belay

The reasons why patients abscond from public hospitals in southeastern Iran: a qualitative study

Patient absconding from hospital is one of the permanent issues the hospitals face, which poses many risks and challenges to the patient, hospital, and society. The present study aimed to identify the reasons ...

Authors: Mahnaz Moradpour, Mohammadreza Amiresmaili, Mahmood Nekoei-Moghadam and Tania Dehesh

A systematic review of prediction models to diagnose COVID-19 in adults admitted to healthcare centers

The COVID-19 pandemic is putting significant pressure on the hospital system. To help clinicians in the rapid triage of patients at high risk of COVID-19 while waiting for RT-PCR results, different diagnostic ...

Authors: Médéa Locquet, Anh Nguyet Diep, Charlotte Beaudart, Nadia Dardenne, Christian Brabant, Olivier Bruyère and Anne-Françoise Donneau

Correction to: Women empowerment and uptake of antenatal care services: A meta-analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys from 33 Sub-Saharan African countries

Authors: Gebretsadik Shibre, Betregiorgis Zegeye, Helena Yeboah, Ghose Bisjawit, Edward Kwabena Ameyaw and Sanni Yaya

Tracking progress in anthropometric failure among under-five children in Ethiopia: a geospatial and multilevel analysis

Undernutrition is a major public health concern among under-five children in many developing countries. This work evaluated the overall prevalence of under-nutrition by using a composite index of anthropometri...

Authors: Binyam Tariku Seboka, Samuel Hailegebreal, Delelegn Emwodew Yehualashet and Abel Desalegn Demeke

Urban-rural disparities in wife-beating attitude among married women: a decomposition analysis from the 2017 Senegal Continuous Demographic and Health Survey

Globally, intimate partner violence is one of the most common forms of gender-based violence, and wife beating is one component of intimate partner violence, with the problem being more severe among women livi...

Authors: Betregiorgis Zegeye, Gebretsadik Shibre, Bright Opoku Ahinkorah, Mpho Keetile and Sanni Yaya

The association between opioids, environmental, demographic, and socioeconomic indicators and COVID-19 mortality rates in the United States: an ecological study at the county level

The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the world presents an unprecedented challenge to public health inequities. People who use opioids may be a vulnerable group disproportionately impacted by the cur...

Authors: Fares Qeadan, Nana Akofua Mensah, Benjamin Tingey, Rona Bern, Tracy Rees, Erin Fanning Madden, Christina A. Porucznik, Kevin English and Trenton Honda

The everyday life situation of caregivers to family members who have had a stroke and received the rehabilitation intervention F@ce in Uganda

Stroke is increasing in Africa and consequences such as limitations in the performance of activities in everyday life persist a long time. A family member might need to care for and assist the person who has h...

Authors: Gunilla Margareta Eriksson, Julius Tunga Kamwesiga and Susanne Guidetti

Documenting HIV research-utilization activities, outputs and outcomes: examples and lessons learned from Project SOAR

The importance of using research findings to inform policy and program decisions is well recognized, but the literature on measuring research utilization activities is scarce. As funding to support some areas ...

Authors: Samuel Kalibala, Irit Sinai and Tara Nutley

Correction to: Adverse childhood experiences and psychological distress among higher education students in Southeast Nigeria: an institutional-based cross-sectional study

Authors: Olaoluwa Samson Agbaje, Chinwe Patience Nnaji, Evelyn Nwanebe Nwagu, Cylia Nkechi Iweama, Prince Christian Ifeanachor Umoke, Lawretta Eyuche Ozoemena and Charles Chike Abba

New hepatitis C virus infection, re-infection and associated risk behaviour in male Irish prisoners: a cohort study, 2019

Prisoners are recognised as a high-risk population and prisons as high-risk locations for the transmission of hepatitis c virus (HCV) infection. Injecting drug use (IDU) is the main driver of HCV infection in ...

Authors: Des Crowley, Gordana Avramovic, Walter Cullen, Collette Farrell, Anne Halpin, Mary Keevans, Eamon Laird, Tina McHugh, Susan McKiernan, Sarah Jayne Miggin, Ross Murtagh, Eileen O. Connor, Marie O’Meara, Deirdre O. Reilly and John S. Lambert

Body mass index, subjective body shape, and suicidal ideation among community-dwelling Korean adults

Previous studies have not investigated in depth the combination of objective body weight and subjective body shape and its association with suicidal ideation among different age groups. Therefore, this study a...

Authors: Chae Eun Yong, Young Bum Kim and Jiyoung Lyu

Identifying key environmental barriers experienced by persons with mild, moderate, or severe disability in Bankim Health District, Cameroon: a policy-targeted secondary analysis of data obtained with the World Bank and WHO model disability survey

Comprehensive data is key for evidence-informed policy aiming to improve the lives of persons experiencing different levels of disability. The objective of this paper was to identify the environmental barriers...

Authors: Lindsay Lee, Ferdinand Mou, Alphonse Um Boock, Carolina Fellinghauer, Mirjam Kohls, Alarcos Cieza and Carla Sabariego

Adequacy of prenatal care services and associated factors in Southern Ethiopia

Prenatal care is an important component for the continuum of care in maternal and child health services. Despite increased attention on prenatal care service coverage, the adequacy of service provision has not...

Authors: Afework Tadele and Bekelu Teka

Predictors of modern contraceptive usage among sexually active rural women in Ethiopia: A multi-level analysis

Ethiopia is one of the Sub-Saharan Africa countries with the lowest modern contraceptive prevalence rate and the highest fertility rate. This study aimed to assess individual and community-level predictors of ...

Authors: Setegn Muche Fenta and Shewayiref Geremew Gebremichael

Individual and community-level determinants of poor tetanus toxoid immunization among pregnant women in Ethiopia using data from 2016 Ethiopian demographic and health survey; multilevel analysis

Tetanus is a vaccine-preventable disease that can occur in all populations, with neonates and pregnant women being at the most risk. Ethiopia has the highest maternal and neonatal tetanus morbidity and mortali...

Authors: Alemneh Mekuriaw Liyew and Hiwotie Getaneh Ayalew

Associations of early marriage and early childbearing with anemia among adolescent girls in Ethiopia: a multilevel analysis of nationwide survey

Early marriage and early childbearing are common practices in Ethiopia. Girls who get married and give birth at a very young age are more likely to experience several health problems including anemia among oth...

Authors: Fentanesh Nibret Tiruneh, Mesfin Wogayehu Tenagashaw, Degnet Teferi Asres and Hirut Assaye Cherie

Essential newborn care practice and associated factors among health care providers in Northeast Ethiopia: a cross-sectional study

Globally, 2.7 million children die during the neonatal period annually. Ethiopia is one of the ten countries with the highest number of neonatal deaths. The practice of poor essential newborn care contributes ...

Authors: Gebrehana Ashenef, Akine Eshete, Betregiorgis Zegeye, Tadesse Tsehay Tarekegn and Mitku Mammo Taderegew

Neonatal healthcare-associated infections in Brazil: systematic review and meta-analysis

Healthcare-associated infections (HAI) are important causes of neonatal morbidity and mortality in developing countries. We reviewed the incidence and the pathogens involved in HAI among infants admitted to ne...

Authors: Felipe Teixeira de Mello Freitas, Anna Paula Bise Viegas and Gustavo Adolfo Sierra Romero

Accelerated failure-time model with weighted least-squares estimation: application on survival of HIV positives

Survival analysis is the most appropriate method of analysis for time-to-event data. The classical accelerated failure-time model is a more powerful and interpretable model than the Cox proport...

Authors: Yesuf Abdela Mustefa and Ding-Geng Chen

Women empowerment and uptake of antenatal care services : A meta-analysis of Demographic and Health Surveys from 33 Sub-Saharan African countries

Women empowerment has been linked to increased skilled antenatal care (ANC) service use. However, there is no evidence on the net effect of women empowerment on ANC in the Sub-saharan African (SSA) region. We ...

Authors: Gebretsadik Shibre, Betregiorgis Zegeye, Helena Yeboah, Ghose Bisjawit, Edward Kwabena Ameyaw and Sanni Yaya

Utilization of preventive care among migrants and non-migrants in Germany: results from the representative cross-sectional study ‘German health interview and examination survey for adults (DEGS1)’

In Germany, different health checks for adults are offered for primary and secondary prevention. Previous findings indicate that preventive care utilization varies according to social determinants, especially ...

Authors: Anne Starker, Claudia Hövener and Alexander Rommel

Different configurations of the two-step floating catchment area method for measuring the spatial accessibility to hospitals for people living with disability: a cross-sectional study

Poor spatial accessibility to hospital services is associated with higher morbidity and mortality rates among people living with disability. Improved methods to evaluate spatial accessibility are needed. This ...

Authors: Behzad Kiani, Alireza Mohammadi, Robert Bergquist and Nasser Bagheri

The nature of food promotions over one year in circulars from leading Belgian supermarket chains

To examine the proportion of healthier and less healthy food promotions in circulars of major Belgian supermarket chains.

Authors: Stefanie Vandevijvere and Iris Van Dam

Association of breastfeeding and risk of metabolic syndrome and its components in postmenopausal parous women: Korea national health and nutrition examination survey (2010 ~ 2016)

Understanding the relationship between breastfeeding (BF) and metabolic syndrome (Mets) is important for maternal long-term health benefits and disease prevention. This study aimed to examine the association b...

Authors: Jusuk Lee and Taehong Kim