Uptake of the recently introduced vaccines among children aged 12-23 months in Ethiopia: a multilevel analysis of the 2019 Ethiopia Mini Demographic and Health Survey

Objective
Though vaccination coverage in Ethiopia has shown steady progress over the years, there are districts with below targeted vaccination coverage. This study assessed the magnitude and determinants of recently introduced vaccines uptake among children aged 12–23 months in Ethiopia.

Design
National cross-sectional study.

Setting
Ethiopia.

Participants
Mothers with children aged between 12 and 23 months.

Outcome measures
The outcome variable was the uptake of recently introduced vaccines (rotavirus vaccine (RV) and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV)) among children aged 12–23.

Results
Our analysis revealed that 45.7%, 53.4% and 43.5% of the children completed vaccination with PCV, RV and both PCV and RV, respectively. Being in the age group of 20–34 (adjusted OR (AOR)=2.03, 95% CI: 1.37 to 3.02) and 35–49 (AOR=2.44, 95% CI: 1.52 to 3.91), having at least four antenatal care contacts (AOR=2.73, 95% CI: 2.06 to 3.62), having postnatal care (AOR=1.84, 95% CI: 1.42 to 2.37), delivery in the health facility (AOR=1.45, 95% CI: 1.17 to 1.79) and having exposure to media (AOR=1.24, 95% CI: 1.09 to 1.56) and any of the wealth quintile categories higher than poorest category were positively associated with the uptake of newly introduced vaccines. Rural residency was found to be negatively associated with the uptake of newly introduced vaccines.

Conclusion
The overall full uptakes of newly introduced vaccines among children aged 12–23 months were significantly lower. Hence, this study emphasises the need to strengthen maternal and child healthcare services, particularly to the younger age mother and those with lower socioeconomic status.

Leggi
Aprile 2025

Twenty-year trend in comorbidity score among adults aged 50-85 years in Lombardy, Italy: Age-Cohort-Period analysis and future trends

Objectives
To assess the effects of age, birth cohort, and period on comorbidity rates as well as project their future trends over the next 25 years.

Design
Population-based retrospective observational study.

Setting
Record linkage from the population-based healthcare utilisation database of Lombardy, Italy, between 2004 and 2023.

Participants
All beneficiaries of the Italian National Health Service (NHS) aged 50–85 years residing in Lombardy. Data were separately analysed for each year from 2004 to 2023, with thus the availability of 20 study populations.

Primary outcome measures
Comorbidities were traced via the medical services provided by the NHS, and the overall quantification was obtained by the Multisource Comorbidity Score, which was developed and validated for the Italian population. The temporal analysis of the 20 yearly temporal comorbidity rates was obtained by the Age-Cohort-Period models. The comorbidities prevalence trends were forecasted from 2025 to 2050.

Results
From 2004 to 2023, the prevalence of comorbidities declined from 46% to 40% in men and from 47% to 42% in women. An increase in prevalence between the ages of 50 and 85 years was observed for both women (from 33% to 63%) and men (from 29% to 67%). A declining prevalence was observed among cohorts born from 1922 to 1970 for both women (by 33%) and men (by 50%). A continued decline in the absolute number and prevalence rate of comorbidities is expected for both women and men until 2050.

Conclusions
The decline in ageing-related comorbidity prevalence over time may persist up to 2050. Improved medical care and public health initiatives benefiting individuals born in more recent years may counterbalance the expected trend of increasing comorbidity prevalence due to population ageing.

Leggi
Aprile 2025

A 25-Year-Old With Widespread Skin Lesions

A man taking no regular medications had 1 month of small painless facial papules progressing over 1 week to vesicles and pustules. He reported unprotected sex with multiple partners and recent exposure to a person with active tuberculosis; rapid plasma reagin titer was normal; results of HIV and fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption tests were positive. What is the diagnosis and what would you do next?

Leggi
Aprile 2025

Trends and inequalities in womens use of quality antenatal care, intrapartum care, and immediate postnatal care services in Ethiopia: multivariate decomposition, secondary data analyses of four demographic and health surveys over two decades (2001-2019)

Objective
This study aimed to examine the trends and inequalities in women’s use of quality antenatal care (ANC), quality intrapartum care and immediate postnatal care (PNC) services, and the determinants that contributed to changes in receiving these services from 2001 to 2019 in Ethiopia using the Ethiopia Demographic and Health Surveys (EDHSs) data.

Design, outcomes, setting and analysis
Secondary data analyses of four waves of nationally representative EDHSs from 2005 to 2019 were conducted. We defined quality ANC as having blood pressure measurement, blood and urine tests, iron supplementation and being informed of pregnancy-related complications during ANC visits; quality intrapartum care as having health facility birth, birth assisted by skilled personnel and newborn put to the breast within 1 hour of birth and immediate PNC as having maternal and newborn PNC within 24 hours of birth. We used control charts, multivariate logistic regression decomposition analyses and equiplots to measure and analyse trends and inequalities over two decades using data from EDHSs 2005–2019.

Results
Over the period 2001–2019, there were increases in the percentage of quality ANC (3.7%–39.6%), intrapartum care (3.9%–43.3%) and immediate PNC (2.6%22.1%) services received. However, there were widening inequalities between these services received by women, favouring those from advantageous socioeconomic backgrounds. From 2001–2019, the largest significant increases in the percentage of women receiving quality ANC and immediate PNC services were due to changes in the distribution of sociodemographic and maternal care characteristics, while the largest significant increase in the percentage of women receiving quality intrapartum care was due to changes in the effects of these characteristics.

Conclusions
The healthcare system in Ethiopia should expand access to all the recommended maternal healthcare interventions to disadvantaged population subgroups. Universal coverage of quality maternal and newborn healthcare across the continuum is needed. There is also a need to promote ≥4 ANC, early initiation of ANC, girls’ and women’s education and enabling women’s economic empowerment.

Leggi
Marzo 2025

Global, regional and national burden and quality of care index (QCI) of leukaemia and brain and central nervous system tumours in children and adolescents aged 0-19 years: a systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 1990-2019

Objectives
This study aimed to evaluate the global, regional and national disparities in the quality of care for leukaemia and brain and central nervous system (CNS) tumours among children and adolescents aged 0–19 years. We also assessed temporal trends in the quality of care index (QCI) and explored associations with sociodemographic development levels, gender and age.

Setting
The study used data from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019 database, covering 204 countries and territories. The analysis included global, regional and national levels of care, stratified by sociodemographic index (SDI), gender and age groups.

Participants
The study included children and adolescents aged 0–19 years diagnosed with leukaemia or CNS tumours. Data on incidence, prevalence, mortality and disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) were extracted from the GBD 2019 database.

Primary and secondary outcome measures
The primary outcome was the QCI, constructed using principal component analysis from four secondary indicators: years of life lost to years lived with disability ratio, DALYs to prevalence ratio, mortality to incidence ratio and prevalence to incidence ratio. Secondary outcomes included temporal trends in QCI, gender disparity ratios (GDRs) and correlations between QCI and SDI levels.

Results
In 2019, leukaemia and CNS tumours accounted for 132 194 deaths globally. The QCI for leukaemia was 74.71, while for CNS tumours, it was 56.59. From 1990 to 2019, the QCI for CNS tumours increased significantly (estimated annual percentage change (EAPC)=1.45, 95% CI: 1.41 to 1.50), whereas the QCI for leukaemia showed a declining trend in middle and low-middle SDI regions (EAPC=–0.13, 95% CI: –0.16 to –0.09). Western Europe had the highest QCI for leukaemia (94.50), while South Asia had the lowest (57.64). Boys had lower QCI scores than girls, and the gender disparity in CNS tumours widened over time (GDR increased from 1.147 in 1990 to 1.160 in 2019). QCI was positively correlated with SDI levels (leukaemia: r=0.591, p

Leggi
Marzo 2025

Healthcare utilisation in people living with HIV: the role of substance use, mood/anxiety disorders and unsustained viral suppression – a retrospective cohort study in British Columbia, Canada, 2001-2019

Objective
People living with HIV (PLWH) are disproportionately affected by substance use disorder (SUD) and mood/anxiety disorders, which are barriers to sustained viral suppression and can contribute to increased healthcare utilisations. This study examined the impact of SUD and mood/anxiety disorders on healthcare utilisation of PLWH with sustained and unsustained viral suppression.

Design and participants
This retrospective population-based cohort study used administrative data from 9757 antiretroviral-treated PLWH (83% men, median age 40 years). Eligible PLWH were≥19 years of age, followed during 2001–2019, and achieved viral suppression at least once during follow-up.

Setting
This study was conducted in British Columbia, Canada.

Measurements
The exposure variable consisted of eight levels and included (1) sustained suppression, (2) SUD and mood/anxiety disorder diagnoses and the interaction between (1) and (2). Outcome variables included annual counts of primary care and specialist physician visits, laboratory visits, acute care hospitalisation, day surgery episodes and hospital length of stay (LOS). Statistical count models were used to determine the effect of exposure variables on each healthcare utilisation outcome while adjusting for socioeconomic confounders.

Results
In the presence of sustained suppression, having both disorders was significantly associated with over four times more acute-care hospitalisations (0.28 vs 0.05), three times longer LOS (9.1 vs 3.0 days) and almost double primary care physician (13.1 vs 6.9) and specialist (7.9 vs 4.0) visits. Overall, SUD alone was associated with increased use of all healthcare services (except day surgery). Regardless of disorder diagnoses, unsustained suppression was associated with higher healthcare utilisation (except day surgery).

Conclusion
In this study, SUD, mood/anxiety disorders and unsustained suppression, when combined, resulted in the highest healthcare utilisation among PLWH. The results suggest that providing comprehensive mental health and substance use services to PLWH and addressing barriers to sustained suppression could reduce the healthcare burden within this population.

Leggi
Marzo 2025

Demographics, epidemiology, mortality and difficult-to-treat resistance patterns of bacterial bloodstream infections in the global US Military Health System from 2010 to 2019: a retrospective cohort study

Objective
To describe demographics, causative pathogens, hospitalisation, mortality and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) of bacterial bloodstream infections (BSIs) among beneficiaries in the global US Military Health System (MHS), a single-provider healthcare system with 10-year longitudinal follow-up.

Design
Retrospective cohort study.

Setting
Clinical and demographic data collected from the MHS Data Repository and collated with microbiological data obtained from the Defense Centers for Public Health-Portsmouth.
Participants: 12 748 MHS beneficiaries diagnosed with 15 357 bacterial BSIs (2010–2019).

Main outcome(s) and measure(s)
Demographic data and diagnosis codes preceding BSI episodes and during hospitalisations were collected. Inpatient admission data identified acute clinical diagnoses, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and mortality. BSI pathogens were evaluated for AMR, including difficult-to-treat resistance (DTR). Crude mortality trends were assessed.

Results
The decade analysed included 15 357 BSI episodes in 12 748 patients; 6216 patients (48.8%) were≥65 years and 83.7% of episodes had≥1 comorbidity (12 856 of 15 357). Approximately 29% of episodes with hospitalisation required ICU admission and~34% had concurrent urinary tract infections. Pathogen distribution was 53% and 47% for Gram-positive bacteria and Gram-negative bacilli (GNB), respectively. Inpatient mortality was 4.4%, and at 1 year was 23.4%; 0.5% (16 of 2977) of deaths were associated with DTR GNB. Among an average 8 145 778 individuals receiving care annually in the MHS, annual rates of overall BSI, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus spp and DTR GNB BSI were 18.9, 1.30, 0.25 and 0.05 per 100 000 beneficiaries, respectively. Over the decade, annual mortality did not significantly increase for any pathogen and decreased by~2% for overall BSI (p=0.024) and~3% for lactose-fermenting GNB BSI (p=0.048).

Conclusions
In the global US MHS, the mortality burden associated with BSI was substantial (approximately one in four dying at 1 year), relatively unchanged over a decade, and associated with older age and comorbidities. First-line treatment options remained available for 99.7% of BSIs. Population-level improvements in BSI survival might be maximally influenced by focusing on prevention, early detection, prompt antibiotics and other novel therapies not contingent on in vitro activity.

Leggi
Marzo 2025