1,720,991 research outputs found
Blood transfusion service readiness and its associated factors in health facilities providing blood transfusion services across Ethiopia: A secondary analysis of the 2018 Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) survey.
No full textIntroductionTimely and safe blood transfusion services are crucial for saving lives in emergencies. Previous studies have focused on hospital inpatient care access but have overlooked blood transfusion service readiness. This study examined the readiness of blood transfusion services in health facilities across Ethiopia and its determinants.MethodsThis study used Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA) 2018 data from 632 facilities. Readiness was measured based on seven components: the presence of at least one trained staff for appropriate use of blood and safe transfusion; guidelines for appropriate use and transfusion; blood storage refrigerator; blood typing; cross-match typing; blood supply safety; and blood supply sufficiency. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Facility characteristics were summarized using frequency tables and summary statistics. Bivariate and multivariable linear regression analyses examined the predictors of service readiness.ResultsFacilities offering blood transfusion services had a mean readiness score of 4.5 (out of 7), with only 5% having all items. Most facilities performed blood typing, but less than one-third conducted cross-match testing, and over half lacked guidelines and trained staff. Service readiness varied significantly across regions. Facilities in Oromia (Coef.: -0.74; 95% CI: [-1.32, -0.15]) and Somali (Coef.: -1.26; 95% CI: [-2.21, -0.31]) had lower readiness scores compared to Addis Ababa. Increased availability of medical equipment corresponded to a 49% increase in readiness scores (Coef.: 0.49; 95% CI: [0.19, 0.79]).ConclusionThe study highlights deficiencies in blood transfusion service readiness and regional disparities, emphasizing the need for targeted support to enhance readiness across regions
Maternal Anthropometric Measurements Do Not Have Effect on Birth Weight of Term, Single, and Live Births in Addis Ababa City, Ethiopia
No full textLow birth weight is a global public health problem for mortality and morbidity in any age group. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of maternal anthropometric measurements on birth weight. A cross-sectional study was conducted from Nov 25, 2012, to Feb 25, 2013, in maternity public hospitals in Addis Ababa city, Ethiopia. The effect is investigated using correlation, linear regression, independent sample T-test, one-way ANOVA, and finally multivariate linear regression analysis. A total of 605 women and their newborns took part in this study and prevalence of low birth weight is 8.3%. On adjusted multivariate linear regression analysis, maternal anthropometric measurements did not have an effect on birth weight. Since maternal mid-upper arm circumference ≤ 20 cm and body mass index ≤18.5kg/m2 are almost nil in this study, generalization is difficult to general population where undernourished women are common in the rural Ethiopia and similar study is recommended in those areas. Antenatal care visits, gestational age, and female sex of newborn had statistically significant effect in determining the risk of low birth weight. Women who were living with large family members had a heavier newborn than counterparts. This might be due to the fact that pregnant women have better care and social support in Ethiopian context, so advising pregnant women to live with family members should be considered to enhance social support during pregnancy in Ethiopia. Maternal anthropometric measurements have no significant effect in determining birth weight in the city and we recommend similar studies where undernourished women are common
Health post readiness and its influence on mothers’ care-seeking practice for their sick children in Ethiopia
Get PDFIntroductionInfection accounts for about half of all neonatal deaths and it contributes to 37% of neonatal deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa where there is low health facility readiness and the quality of service given at health facilities is low. In this study, we assessed the influence of health posts’ readiness on the care-seeking behavior of mothers of sick young children.MethodThis study analyzed data from a community-based implementation survey conducted by JSI in the two districts of Ethiopia from April 2021 to July 2022. In this study, we enrolled 4,262 and 4,081 mothers with children < 15 months at the baseline and end-line surveys, respectively, of which 508 and 359 infants were diagnosed for illness at 66 and 64 health posts at the baseline and end-line surveys. We used the Service Availability and Readiness Assessment tool to compute the facility readiness score. We used independent sample t-test and logistic regression to see the contributions of facility readiness for care-seeking practices of mothers. AOR at 95% CI and p-value < 0.05 is used to declare a statistically significant association between variables and to control the confounding.ResultsIn the end-line survey about 359 sick young infants were identified. And in the baseline survey, 508 young infants were ill. Most of 88.0% sick young infants sought care in the end line compared to 57.3% at the baseline (p < 0.001). The overall summated mean facility readiness score was 69.6%, equivalent to 49.0% of the standardized mean score. This study also highlights rich households (AOR = 2.02; 95% CI: 1.1–3.9), reaching out to health posts (HPs) equipped with materials and supplies (AOR = 1.52; 95% CI: 1.2–1.9), and ANC use (AOR = 2.35; 95%CI: 1.2–4.7) were positively associated with care seeking practice compared to their counterparts.ConclusionThe study reveals a moderate level of health post-readiness that needs improvement. Health posts readiness, ANC use, parity, and wealth status influenced the care-seeking behavior of mothers for their sick children
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Effectiveness of participatory community solutions strategy on improving household and provider health care behaviors and practices: A mixed-method evaluation
No full textIntroductionWe implemented a participatory quality improvement strategy in eight primary health care units of Ethiopia to improve use and quality of maternal and newborn health services.MethodsWe evaluated the effects of this strategy using mixed-methods research. We used before-and-after (March 2016 and November 2017) cross-sectional surveys of women who had children 0–11 months to compare changes in maternal and newborn health care indicators in the 39 communities that received the intervention and the 148 communities that did not. We used propensity scores to match the intervention with the comparison communities at baseline and difference-in-difference analyses to estimate intervention effects. The qualitative method included 51 in-depth interviews of community volunteers, health extension workers, health center directors and staff, and project specialists.ResultsThe difference-in-difference analyses indicated that 7.9 percentage points (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.8–13.9%) increase in receiving skilled delivery care between baseline and follow-up surveys in the intervention area that is attributable to the strategy. The intervention effect on postnatal care in 48 hours of the mother was 15.3% (95% CI: 7.4–23.2). However, there was no evidence that the strategy affected the seven other maternal and newborn health care indicators considered. Interview participants said that the participatory design and implementation strategy helped them to realize gaps, identify real problems, and design appropriate solutions, and created a sense of ownership and shared responsibility for implementing interventions.ConclusionsCommunity participation in planning and monitoring maternal and newborn health service delivery improves use of some high-impact maternal and newborn health services. The study supports the notion that participatory community strategies should be considered to foster community-responsive health systems.</div
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