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Background: Access to health care services is a basic human right, and an individual's health and overall quality of life may suffer as a result of barriers to accessing health services. Access to comprehensive and quality health care is fundamental for promoting and maintaining health, preventing and treating diseases, and reducing premature deaths. However, only half of the African population has access to modern health services. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the health care access and associated factors among female youths in low-income East African countries., Methods: This study used secondary data from 2016 to 2021 demographic and health surveys of 7 low-income East African countries. A total weighted sample of 51,064 youths was included. A multilevel binary logistic regression was employed to identify the associated factors of access to health care since the data has a hierarchical structure. Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval (CI) at a p-value less than 0.05 was used to measure the association of variables whereas Intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), Median Odds Ratio (MOR), and proportional change in variance (PCV) were used to measure random effects., Result: The overall magnitude of access to healthcare among female youths in low-income East African countries was 38.84% (95% CI: 38.41, 39.26). Youth's educational level, rich wealth status, media exposure, and community level education were the positive while higher youth's age and rural residence were the negative predictors of access to healthcare among female youths. Besides, living in different countries compared to Burundi was also an associated factor for accessing healthcare in low-income East African countries., Conclusion: About six in ten female youths were not accessing health care in low-income East African countries. Therefore, to increase healthcare access, health managers and policymakers needed to develop strategies to improve the poor household wealth index, and redistribution of health services for rural residents. The decision-makers and program planners should also work on increasing access to education and media exposure for youths. Further research including health system and quality of service-related factors for accessing healthcare should also be considered by researchers., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Introduction: Ethiopia strives to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through Primary Health Care (PHC) by expanding access to services and improving the quality and equitable comprehensive health services at all levels. The Health Extension Program (HEP) is an innovative strategy to deliver primary healthcare services in Ethiopia and is designed to provide basic healthcare to approximately 5000 people through a health post (HP) at the grassroots level. Thus, this review aimed to assess the magnitude of health extension service utilization in Ethiopia., Methods: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) checklist guideline was used for this review and meta-analysis. The electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, and African Journals Online) and search engines (Google Scholar and Grey literature) were searched to retrieve articles by using keywords. The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) meta-analysis of statistics assessment and review instrument was used to assess the quality of the studies. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I 2 statistic. The meta-analysis with a 95% confidence interval using STATA 17 software was computed to present the pooled utilization of health extension services. Publication bias was assessed by visually inspecting the funnel plot and statistical tests using Egger's and Begg's tests., Result: 22 studies were included in the systematic review with a total of 28,171 participants, and 8 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The overall pooled magnitude of health extension service utilization was 58.5% (95% CI: 40.53, 76.48%). In the sub-group analysis, the highest pooled proportion of health extension service utilization was 60.42% (28.07, 92.77%) in the mixed study design, and in studies published after 2018, 59.38% (36.42, 82.33%). All studies were found to be within the confidence interval of the pooled proportion of health extension service utilization in leave-out sensitivity analysis., Conclusions: The utilization of health extension services was found to be low compared to the national recommendation. Therefore, policymakers and health planners should come up with a wide variety of health extension service utilization strategies to achieve universal health coverage through the primary health care., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Introduction: Countries with humanitarian crises and fragile conditions contribute to 61% of the global burden of maternal mortality. Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (EmONC) services reduce direct obstetric complications, which cause approximately 70-80% of maternal deaths and 10% to 15% of neonatal deaths. Therefore, this study was aimed to assess the service availability and readiness to provide comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care services in post-conflict at North Wollo Zone hospitals, Northeast Ethiopia., Methods: A facility-based mixed cross-sectional study design was conducted from May 10 to May 25, 2022, among North Wollo zone hospitals. Quantitative data were collected by using structured interviewer-administered questionnaires with observation and record review, entered by using Epi Data Version 4.6, and exported to SPSS 25 for analysis. Qualitative data were collected by key informant interviews and analyzed through thematic analysis. A descriptive data analysis was done to analyze the study variables., Results: Only three of the six hospitals (Woldia, Shediho Meket, and Saint Lalibella) performed all signal functions of comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care in the preceding three months. Cesarean section was the least performed signal function in post-conflict. The overall readiness to provide comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care services was 77.7%. Only one of the six hospitals had sufficient blood without interruption, and three of the six facilities had done screening for hepatitis B, HIV, and syphilis. Lack of supplies, equipment, and drugs were the challenges for the performance of EmONC signal functions., Conclusions: Post-conflict availability and readiness for comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care services in the North Wollo Zone was suboptimal. Shortage of medical supplies, equipment and emergency transportation was the challenges to provide these services. Thus, the hospital decision makers should strengthen leadership commitment, which focuses on recovering and rebuilding the destructed hospitals with resource mobilization and support., (© 2023. The Author(s).)