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Background Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of communicable diseases that principally impact the world’s poorest people. The use of digital health technologies is an emerging and promising way to improve disease prevention, diagnosis, case detection, treatment delivery, and patient follow-up and facilitating health facility appointments thereby improving health outcomes. While the growing implementation of digital health technologies is evident, there is a lack of comprehensive evidence on the impact of digital health technologies in the control of NTDs. The main objective of this review was to map different pieces of evidence on the use of digital health technologies for case detection, management, and treatment outcome of the neglected tropical diseases. Methods We conducted a scoping review guided by the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines. The studies were searched using electronic databases like MEDLINE (PubMed), Science Direct, Cochrane Library, and manual searching engines. Two authors extracted the data and compared the results. Discrepancies were resolved by discussion or the third reviewer made the decision. We produced the distribution of geographical locations, residents (setting), types of publications, and digital health technologies used on neglected tropical diseases using tables and graphs. Findings A total of 996 potentially relevant studies were generated from the initial search, and six studies were found to satisfy all the inclusion criteria and included in the final review. The review found that telehealth, eHealth, mHealth, telemedicine, and electronic health record were used digital health technologies to assess their impact on case detection, disease management, and treatment outcome of neglected tropical diseases. Mobile health was a feasible digital health technology for lymphatic filariasis patient identification and mHealth, eHealth, and electronic health records found to improve the service access, outcomes, and monitoring of visceral leishmaniasis at the community health system. Conclusion The scoping review identified that there were limited studies to see the impact of digital health technologies on case detection, management, and treatment outcomes for neglected tropical diseases. We also found that digital health technologies like ehealth, electronic medical linkage, telemed, and telehealth were practicable for patient identification, for treatment and diagnosis through contact with health professionals and teleconsultation, and support in improving health service delivery at the community-health system for managing the disease in both rural and urban settings.

Background Social media has become an alternative platform for communication during medical crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to assess social media usage for COVID-19-related information among health professionals. Method A quantitative cross-sectional study design was conducted among 370 health professionals. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 25 software. Data were collected using a semi-structured, self-administered, and pre-tested questionnaire. Descriptive and binary logistic regression analysis techniques were used to describe respondents’ social media usage for COVID-19 information and identify its associated factors. Results About 54% (95% CI: 48–58%) of the participants had good social media usage for COVID-19-related information. Age≤30 (AOR = 2.02, 95% CI: 1.14–3.58), Wi-Fi/broadband Internet access (AOR = 2.45, 95% CI: 1.38–4.33), taking computer training (AOR = 2.58, 95% CI: 1.37–4.85), basic computer skill (AOR = 3.28, 95% CI: 1.71–6.29), and usefulness of social media (AOR = 3.56, 95% CI: 1.57–8.04) were found to be the significant factors associated with usage of social media for COVID-19-related information. Conclusion The present study confirms that more than half of health professionals had good social media usage for COVID-19-related information. This shows that social media platforms can be used as a source of COVID-19-related information for health professionals if basic computer training is offered, internet connection is available in the workplace, and the usefulness of social media is emphasized.

Background Healthcare providers across all clinical practice settings are progressively relying and adapting information communication technologies to perform their professional activities. In this era of technology, healthcare providers especially in lower income countries should have at least basic digital competency if a successful application of technology is to be achieved. The aim of this study was to assess digital competency of healthcare providers among seven public health centers in North-West Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study design was applied to assess the basic digital competency of healthcare providers working in seven public health centers in North-west Amhara regional state, Ethiopia. Self-administered questionnaire adopted from the European commission’s digital competency framework for assessing digital competency were used. A multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify factors associated with basic digital competency with p -value< 0.05 as a rule out for statistical significance. The strength of association was explained in terms of coefficient estimate, adjusted odds ratio and a 95% confidence interval (CI). Result From the total of 193 healthcare providers included in the study, 167 of them responded which is a response rate of 86.5%. The majority of respondents 88 (52.7%) were males and the mean age was 28.2 years with a standard deviation of 5.5 years. The result indicated that all items demonstrated an adequate level of internal consistency with Cronbach alpha > 0 .7. Healthcare providers in those public health centers reported that problem solving, safety and communication are the most common challenges encountered. The multivariable logistic regression model indicated that factors such as sex, educational status, profession type, monthly income and years of experience are statistically significant predictors. Conclusion Basic digital competency level of healthcare providers working in public health centers in this setting is relatively low. The results highlight the need to improve digital competency among healthcare providers focusing on the identified skill gaps.

Background Chronic patients persistently seek for health information on the internet for medication information seeking, nutrition, disease management, information regarding disease preventive actions and so on. Consumers ability to search, find, appraise and use health information from the internet is known as eHealth literacy skill. eHealth literacy is a congregate set of six basic skills (traditional literacy, health literacy, information literacy, scientific literacy, media literacy and computer literacy). The aim of this study was to assess eHealth literacy level and associated factors among internet user chronic patients in North-west Ethiopia. Methods Institutional based cross-sectional study design was conducted. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 423 study participants among chronic patients. The eHealth literacy scale (eHEALS) was used for data collection. The eHEALS is a validated eight-item Likert scaled questionnaire used to asses self-reported capability of eHealth consumers to find, appraise, and use health related information from the internet to solve health problems. Statistical Package for Social science version 20 was used for data entry and further analysis. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the association between the eHealth literacy skill and associated factors. Significance was obtained at 95% CI and p  < 0.05. Result In total, 423 study subjects were approached and included in the study from February to May, 2019. The response rate to the survey was 95.3%. The majority of respondents 268 (66.3%) were males and mean age was 35.58 ± 14.8 years. The multivariable logistic regression model indicated that participants with higher education (at least having the diploma) are more likely to possess high eHealth literacy skill with Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR): 3.48, 95% CI (1.54, 7.87). similarly, being government employee AOR: 1.71, 95% CI (1.11, 2.68), being urban resident AOR: 1.37, 95% CI (0.54, 3.49), perceived good health status AOR: 3.97, 95% CI (1.38, 11.38), having higher income AOR: 4.44, 95% CI (1.32, 14.86), Daily internet use AOR: 2.96, 95% CI (1.08, 6.76), having good knowledge about the availability and importance of online resources AOR: 3.12, 95% CI (1.61, 5.3), having positive attitude toward online resources AOR: 2.94, 95% CI (1.07, 3.52) and higher level of computer literacy AOR: 3.81, 95% CI (2.19, 6.61) were the predictors positively associated with higher eHealth literacy level. Conclusion Besides the mounting indication of efficacy, the present data confirm that internet use and eHealth literacy level of chronic patients in this setting is relatively low which clearly implicate that there is a need to fill the skill gap in eHealth literacy among chronic patients which might help them in finding and evaluating relevant online sources for their health-related decisions.

The implementation of eHealth systems with a trial-and-error approach is very expensive and unsuccessful. So, this study aims to examine the constructs and relationships of the modified technology acceptance model (TAM) to determine whether it can be applied to assess health professional's behavioral intention to adopt eHealth systems in resource-limited settings or not. The institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted among a total of 384 healthcare professionals in referral hospitals of Amhara regional state, Ethiopia. Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data, and the data were entered using Epi-info version 7 and the descriptive data were analyzed using SPSS version 25. Structural equation modeling, using AMOS 22, was also applied to describe and validate the degree of relationships between variables. The findings of the structural equation modeling (SEM) indicate that perceived usefulness has a significant influence on attitude (β =0.298, P<0.01) and intention to use eHealth (β =0.387, P<0.01). Perceived ease of use has significant influence on perceived usefulness (β=0.385, P<0.05) and attitude (β=0.347, P<0.05) and intention to use eHealth (β=0.339, P<0.01). Technical infrastructure has significant influence on attitude (β =0.412, P<0.01) and intention to use eHealth (β =0.355, P<0.01). The staffs IT experience has a significant influence on perceived usefulness (β =0.595, P<0.01) and attitude (β =0.267, P<0.05), but the effect of IT experience on the intention to use eHealth was not significant. Among all the constructs, healthcare professionals attitude towards eHealth showed the strongest effect on the intention to use eHealth systems (β = 0.52, P<0.01). Overall, this model describes 56.2% of the variance in behavioral intention to use eHealth systems. Therefore, the implementers should give priority in enhancing the organizations technical infrastructure, staff's IT skill, and their attitude towards eHealth by giving continuous support.

Background Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) are systems to store patient information like medical histories, test results, and medications electronically. It helps to give quality service by improving data handling and communication in healthcare setting. EMR implementation in developing countries is increasing exponentially. But, only few of them are successfully implemented. Intention to use EMRs by health care provider is crucial for successful implementation and adoption of EMRs. However, intention of health care providers to use EMR in Ethiopia is unknown. Objective The aim of this study was to assess health care provider’s intention to use and its predictors towards Electronic Medical Record systems at three referral hospitals in north-west, Ethiopia, 2019. Methods Institutional based cross-sectional explanatory study design was conducted from March to September among 420 health care providers working at three referral hospitals in north-west Ethiopia. Data were analyzed using structural equation model (SEM). Simple and multiple SEM were used to assess the determinants of health care providers intention to use EMRs. Critical ratio and standardized coefficients were used to measure the association of dependent and independent variables, 95% confidence intervals and P -value were calculated to evaluate statistical significance. Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Result The mean age of the study subjects was 32.4 years ±8.3 SD. More than two-third 293(69.8%) of the participants were male. Among 420 health care providers, only 167 (39.8%) were scored above the mean of intention to use EMRs. Factors positively associated with intention to use EMRs were performance expectancy (β = 0.39, p  < 0.001), effort expectancy (β = 0.24, p  < 0.001),social influence (β = 0.18, p  < 0.001),facilitating condition (β = 0.23, p  < 0.001), and computer literacy (β = 0.08, p  < 0.001). Performance expectancy was highly associated with intention to use EMRs. Conclusion Generally, about 40 % of health care providers were scored above the mean of intention to use EMRs. Performance expectancy played a major role in determining health care providers’ intention to use EMRs. The intention of health care providers to use EMRs was attributed by social influence, facilitating condition in the organization, effort expectancy, performance expectancy and computer literacy. Therefore, identifying necessary prerequisites before the actual implementation of EMRs will help to improve the implementation status.

Though Ethiopia has made significant progress in childhood vaccination, many children remain unvaccinated, making it the third largest contributor to the global burden of zero-dose children. Zero-dose children are those who doesn't receive the first dose of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis containing vaccine. Identifying geographic inequities of zero-dose prevalence and the factors influencing it could help to effectively reach and identify at-risk children and to design tailored intervention. This study aimed to assess the geographical inequities and predicting factors of zero-dose children aged 12-23 month in Ethiopia. We used a population-based survey data. A total of 6,212 children aged 12-23 were included. The spatial autocorrelation was employed to examine geographic variations in zero-dose children. Getis-Ord Gi* statistics was used for hotspot analyses. A Kriging interpolation technique used to estimate values of zero-dose at unmeasured locations based on known values of zero-dose at observed locations. The Geographic Weighted Regression (GWR) analysis was used to elicit determinants of geographic difference in zero-dose children. Adjusted R2 and Akaike Information Criteria (AICc) were used to compare the models. The prevalence of zero-dose children was 24.8% [CI: 23.7%-25.8%] ranged from 0.9% in Addis Ababa to 40.7% in Somali region. The zero-dose prevalence varied across the study area (Moran's I = 0.193; P-value<0.0001). Significantly higher proportions of zero doses (hotspot areas) were identified in the north and south Somali, northwest Afar, East Amhara, and southern Oromia regions. GWR analysis showed that no ANC utilization, no TT/Td vaccination, poor perceptions on immunization, and far distance to healthcare facilities contributed to these geographic variations. This study revealed that the prevalence of Zero-dose is unacceptably high, with geographic inequities varying across the country. Factors such as ANC utilization, TT/Td vaccination, perceptions of immunization, and distance to healthcare facilities contributed to these geographic differences. This underscores the importance of designing and implementing tailored interventions to identify and reach zero-dose children. Such an approach could help achieve the national and global immunization goal of leaving no one behind by providing equitable access to immunization.

Though Ethiopia has made significant progress in childhood vaccination, many children remain unvaccinated, making it the third largest contributor to the global burden of zero-dose children. Zero-dose children are those who doesn't receive the first dose of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis containing vaccine. Identifying geographic inequities of zero-dose prevalence and the factors influencing it could help to effectively reach and identify at-risk children and to design tailored intervention. This study aimed to assess the geographical inequities and predicting factors of zero-dose children aged 12-23 month in Ethiopia. We used a population-based survey data. A total of 6,212 children aged 12-23 were included. The spatial autocorrelation was employed to examine geographic variations in zero-dose children. Getis-Ord Gi* statistics was used for hotspot analyses. A Kriging interpolation technique used to estimate values of zero-dose at unmeasured locations based on known values of zero-dose at observed locations. The Geographic Weighted Regression (GWR) analysis was used to elicit determinants of geographic difference in zero-dose children. Adjusted R2 and Akaike Information Criteria (AICc) were used to compare the models. The prevalence of zero-dose children was 24.8% [CI: 23.7%-25.8%] ranged from 0.9% in Addis Ababa to 40.7% in Somali region. The zero-dose prevalence varied across the study area (Moran's I = 0.193; P-value<0.0001). Significantly higher proportions of zero doses (hotspot areas) were identified in the north and south Somali, northwest Afar, East Amhara, and southern Oromia regions. GWR analysis showed that no ANC utilization, no TT/Td vaccination, poor perceptions on immunization, and far distance to healthcare facilities contributed to these geographic variations. This study revealed that the prevalence of Zero-dose is unacceptably high, with geographic inequities varying across the country. Factors such as ANC utilization, TT/Td vaccination, perceptions of immunization, and distance to healthcare facilities contributed to these geographic differences. This underscores the importance of designing and implementing tailored interventions to identify and reach zero-dose children. Such an approach could help achieve the national and global immunization goal of leaving no one behind by providing equitable access to immunization.

Poisoning is a significant public health problem globally. Ethiopia is a low-income country undergoing technological and social change that may increase access to drugs and chemicals, potentially increasing the incidence of poisoning. This study describes the epidemiology of hospital admissions due to poisoning in a region of Ethiopia. An institution based prospective observational study was employed, as a study design, in selected hospitals of the region from January to December 2018. Of 442 poisoning cases, 78 (17.6%) died. Almost all poisoning cases were intentional self-poisonings. The most frequent poisonings were organophosphate compounds, 145 (32.8%), and metal phosphides (majorly aluminum phosphide), 115 (26.0%). The ingested poison was most frequently accessed from the patients' homes, 243 (55.0%), followed by purchases from local shops, 159 (36%). The median duration of admission was 24 hours. Of all the cases, 23 (5.2%) were admitted to intensive care units (ICU) requiring mechanical ventilation. Most of the cases admitted to the ICU were aluminum phosphide-poisoned patients. The majority of deaths (43 of 78) were due to metal phosphides. From the multivariate logistic regression analysis, altered level of consciousness on hospital arrival, metal phosphide poisoning, and no laboratory result as a part of the diagnosis process or investigation of the extent of toxicity were found to be significantly associated with the likelihood of poor treatment outcome. The majority of the poisoning cases were females. The most common reasons for the intent of self-poisoning were dispute-related, mainly family disharmonies, followed by psychiatric conditions. The poisoning agents were mostly obtained from households. Organophosphate compounds and metal phosphides were the first and the second most frequently encountered poisoning agents, respectively, and it was noted that the later ones were responsible for most of the fatal cases. Of the pharmacologic interventions, atropine was the only agent regarded as an antidote. The most commonly employed agent for supportive treatment was cimetidine followed by maintenance fluids, while gastric lavage was the only GI decontamination method used among others. The fatality rate of poisoning in this study was found to be much higher than in other similar studies. Impaired consciousness upon hospital arrival, metal phosphide poisoning, and no involvement of laboratory investigation were found to significantly associate with the likelihood of death. Generally, the results dictate the need for the design and implementation of strategies to create awareness, prevent, and manage poisoning incidences in the community.

By spacing births and preventing unintended pregnancies, family planning is a crucial technique strategy for controlling the fast expansion of the human population. It also improves maternal and child health. women who are thought to be sexually active but who do not use modern contraception methods, who either do not want to have any more children (Limiting) or who want to delay having children for at least two years are considered to have an unmet need for family planning (Spacing). This study carried out to determine which socio-demographic factors are the key contributors to the discrepancies in the unmet need for family planning among women of reproductive age between surveys years 2005 and 2016. The data for this study arrived from the Ethiopia Demographic Health Surveys in 2005, 2011, and 2016 to investigate trends and Predictors of change of unmet need for family planning among reproductive age women in Ethiopia. Pooled weighted sample of 26,230 (7761 in 2005, 9136 in 2011 and 9,333 in 2016 Ethiopian demographic health surveys) reproductive-age women were used for this study. For the overall trend (2005-2016) multivariable decomposition analysis for non-linear response outcome was calibrated to identify the factors that contributed to the change of unmet need for family planning. The Logit based multivariable decomposition analysis utilizes the output from the logistic regression model to assign the observed change in unmet need for family planning over time into two components. Stata version 16.0 was used to analyze the data. The percentage of Ethiopian women of reproductive age who still lack access (unmet need) for family planning declined from 39.6% in 2005 to 23.6 percent in 2016. The decomposition analysis revealed that the change of unmet need for family planning was due to change in characteristics and coefficients. The difference in coefficients accounted for around nine out of 10 variations in unmet family planning need. Education level, birth order, and desired number of children were all factors that changed over the course of the last 11 years in relation to the unmet need for family planning. Between 2005 and 2016, there were remarkable changes in unmet need for family planning. Women with birth orders of five and up, women with secondary education, and women who wanted fewer children overall were the main causes of the change in unmet need for family planning.