Journal of Community Medicine & Health Education
Open Access

Research Article

The Status of Desired Maternal and Child Health Practices and Service Utilizations of Model Families of the Health Extension Program in SNNPR, Ethiopia

¹Pathfinder International Ethiopia

²Southern Nations, Nationalities and peoples regional Health bureau, Ethiopia

Corresponding Author:

Tariku Nigatu, MPH, CAHM
Senior Advisor for Knowledge Management and Documentation
Integrated Family Health Program (IFHP)/Pathfinder International Ethiopia
P.O. Box 12655, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: +251-113-20-35-01
Fax: +251-113-20-35-72
E-mail: tnigatubogale@pathfinder.org

Received Date: July 04, 2013; Accepted Date: November 25, 2013; Published Date: November 27, 2013

Citation: Asnake M, Kassie G, Nigatu T, Zerihun H, Chawicha K (2013) The Status of Desired Maternal and Child Health Practices and Service Utilizations of Model Families of the Health Extension Program in SNNPR, Ethiopia. J Community Med Health Educ 4:258. doi: 10.4172/2161-0711.1000258

Copyright: © 2013 Asnake M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Background: Maternal and Child Health (MCH) is one of the main focus areas of the Health Extension Program (HEP). Therefore, assessing the status of MCH service utilization of families benefiting from the HEP is critical to inform progress of the program and future directions.
Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the status of desired MCH practices and service utilization of families benefiting from the HEP in SNNPR state of Ethiopia.
Method: A cross-sectional comparative study was conducted from December 2010 to June 2011 in Wolayta and Kembata Tembaro Zones of Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional State of Ethiopia. Comparison of selected variables that show MCH service utilization was made between a randomly selected 690 model families and 686 non-model families. Qualitative data were collected from the two selected zones to complement the findings of the quantitative data. The qualitative data was collected from a purposively selected group of women and men among model families. Descriptive and analytics statistics were used to analyse the quantitative data using STATA version 10 while the qualitative data were analysed using Open Code version 3.6.2.0.
Results: The study showed that ITN ownership and utilization by model families was 66.9% and 58.4% as compared to 53.3% and 42.6% by non-model families respectively (p<0.01). Similarly, ever and current use of family planning was 45.4% and 32.3% as compared to 33.6% and 18.6% among model and non-model families respectively (p<0.001). Nearly half (47.3%) of the women in model families had ever tested for HIV while 35.2% of the women in non-model families did the same (P<0.01). Forty two point three Percent (42.3%) of husbands in model families also tested for HIV while only 35.8% of their counterparts in non-model families did the same (p<0.01). There was no significant difference in the proportion of households with child immunization and feeding practices between model and non-model families.
Conclusion: Generally, model families performed better than non-model families. The government’s decision of making all households models through the implementation of the health development army is a timely decision. Regular follow up of model families after graduation help further improve outcome and sustain the gains.

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