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Background: In Ethiopia, about 20,000 women die each year from complications of pregnancy and child birth with many more maternal morbidities occurring for each maternal deaths. This makes Ethiopia one of the highest countries for maternal deaths in the developing world. This study attempted to assess women's skilled assistance seeking behaviour for pregnancy complications among those who gave birth. Method: A cross-sectional community based study was conducted among women who gave birth within one year regardless of their delivery place. The study was carried out in fifteen randomly selected villages at Arba Minch Zuria district, south west Ethiopia. Data was collected house-to-house using a pretested Amharic questionnaire. During the survey, 798 women were interviewed. Logistic regression model was applied to control confounders. Results: Out of the total sample, 344 (43.1 %) respondents reported at least any one of the pregnancy complications faced in the recent pregnancy. The most common complications reported were malaria (57 %), nausea/vomiting (47.1 %) and severe head ache (29.1 %). of those women who faced complications, around 254 (73.8 %) sought assistance from a skilled provider. Ninety (26.2 %) of the respondents sought assistance either from unskilled provider or home based self-care. Unable to understand the seriousness of the complications, thought as unnecessary, and family disapproval were the major reasons for not seeking care from skilled providers. Belonging to monthly household income $US25- 100 (AOR = 3.4, 95 % CI; 1.04, 11.4), getting antenatal care from a skilled provider (AOR = 10.6, 95 % CI; 3.3, 34.5), Women in the age 20-34 years old (AOR = 3.8; 95 % CI, 1.2, 12.3), Availability of transport access (AOR = 72.2; 95 % CI; 17.2, 303.5) were significantly associated with seeking assistance from a skilled provider. Conclusions: Nearly half (43.1 %) of the women had faced pregnancy complications to the recent birth of last one year. Majority (2/3rd) of the women who reported complications sought skilled assistance. Family, income, transport issue and antenatal care use were independent predictors for skilled assistance from skilled provider. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is over 30 years since the first case of AIDS [Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome] was identified. Attention has been focused recently on the promotion of the "ABCs" of HIV prevention (being abstinent or delaying sex, remaining faithful to one sexual partner, and using condoms consistently during sexual intercourse). As programs that focus on ABCs to prevent heterosexual transmission HIV are rolled out, questions of how well university students who come from varied cultural contexts actually understand the terms and address challenges to adopt behaviors is unanswered. In Ethiopia, despite the mushrooming number of students in the higher learning institutions with the current figure being 210,000 students accommodated in 33 public and 72 private higher learning institutions, sexual and reproductive health services, are not delivered in an organized way. The objective of this study is to identify factors associated with Sexual abstinence among Wolaita Sodo University students to provide evidence for designing appropriate interventions. Methods: A Cross-Sectional study was conducted among 750 undergraduate students selected from Wolaita Sodo University using a stratified simple random sampling technique during the academic year. Data were collected using structured self administered questionnaire, focus group discussion and in depth interview guides as tools for data collection. Ethical clearance was obtained from Jimma University and informed consent was obtained from the participants after explaining purpose of study. Statistical tests were employed wherever necessary at the significance level of 0.05. Results: All of the participants had heard about HIV/AIDS of which 97.3% had good knowledge. Higher proportions of male students were sexually active than their counter parts. Students with better knowledge on HIV AIDS were 6.6 (95%CI=1.6, 12.9) times more likely to abstain from sexual intercourse than their counter parts. Conclusions: Knowledge of students about risk of HIV infection is strong predictors of sexual abstinence of students which were less observed among students who came from rural areas. The university needs to intensify strong behavior change communication using multiple strategies through the active involvement of students themselves within the university's premises and in the surrounding community in collaboration with stakeholders to promote Sexual abstinence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]