Publications by authors named "Nicola Ayers"

Article Synopsis
  • The study aimed to assess the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) knowledge and practices among adolescents in pastoral communities in Ethiopia, highlighting the scarcity of research in this area.
  • Conducted from November 2020 to January 2021, the study involved 773 students from two high schools, using self-administered questionnaires to collect data on their SRH knowledge, attitudes, and service utilization.
  • Results indicated low overall SRH knowledge (44.2% good knowledge), attitudes (46.1% good attitudes), and service utilization (35.4% good utilization), with students from one district performing better in knowledge; improvements in SRH education and services are critically needed.
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In Ethiopia, there is a great need for culturally relevant, sustainable palliative care. Profound poverty and limited health care resources magnify the impact of disease in Ethiopia, one of the poorest countries in the world. The impacts of high burden of disease and poor access to health care include physical suffering, and detrimental economic effects.

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Background: Accessible and high-quality sexual and reproductive health services are essential for adolescents. However, there is a need for more knowledge about the role of leadership and the quality of these services in Ethiopia, where a significant proportion of the population consists of adolescents. Inadequate quality of friendly health services may lead to underutilization and higher rates of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.

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Background: Although access to sexual and reproductive health information is the right and a critical component of health policy, it is not well addressed in pastoral communities. This study assessed the effect of School-Lined Module-based friendly health education on adolescents' sexual and reproductive health knowledge in the pastoral community of Guji Zone, Ethiopia.

Methods: A two-arm cluster Randomized control trial study with pre-post evaluation was conducted among interventions (n=375) compared with control (n=384) in Gorodola and Wadara high schools.

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Background: Although appropriate life skills are recognized as a fundamental right for adolescents and a critical component of health policy, they are often overlooked and rarely researched in pastoral communities. Life skills encompass the ability to adopt positive behaviors, which enable individuals to effectively deal with the demands and challenges of everyday life. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-linked life skills intervention program on adolescents' sexual and reproductive health skills in the pastoral community of Guji zone.

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Article Synopsis
  • Palliative care in Ethiopia, especially in rural areas where over 78% of the population resides, is limited and predominantly focused on urban settings, with significant reliance on donor funding.
  • A qualitative study revealed that palliative care is not well integrated into the national health policies or educational programs, leading to a lack of awareness and inadequate services for chronically ill patients beyond HIV.
  • To improve palliative care access in these regions, enhancements such as better integration into the national health care plan and increased awareness among health professionals are crucial.
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Background: Availability and accessibility of opioids are a worldwide problem. In low-resource settings, such as Ethiopia, access to opioids is either limited or nonexistent and legally restricted in health care settings. This study aimed to identify barriers for the availability and accessibility of opioids in Ethiopian rural and regional health care settings.

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Background: Ethiopia has a national palliative care guideline, and palliative care is explicitly recognised in the country's healthcare policy and health sector transformation plans. However, palliative care is not fully delivered in the regional public hospitals and primary health care units.

Objective: This study explores perceived policy barriers to deliver palliative care services in rural and regional healthcare settings, which primary healthcare units largely serve.

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Objectives: This study aims to measure and explore the barriers to translating theoretical knowledge of palliative care into clinical practice.

Methods: A mixed-method study, combining a cross-sectional survey and key interviews was conducted. The quantitative data were obtained from 173 nurses and the key interviews were conducted with 42 health professionals drawn from multiple settings.

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Background: Palliative care, a recognised component of care by the World Health Organization is poorly developed in low- and middle-income countries. Mobile phone technology, an effective way to increase access and sustainability of healthcare systems globally, has demonstrated benefits within palliative care service delivery, but is yet to be utilised in Ethiopia.

Aim: To co-design, develop and evaluate a mobile phone based remote monitoring system for use by palliative care patients in Ethiopia.

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Background: Teamwork is essential for providing safe, effective and women-centred maternity care and several high profile investigations have highlighted the adverse conseqences of dysfuntional teamwork. Maternity teams may need support to identify the most relevant intervention(s) for improving teamwork.

Objective: To identify and describe current 'off-the-shelf' teamwork interventions freely or commercially available to support improvements to teamworking in UK maternity services and conduct a gap analysis to identify areas for future development.

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Background: Evidence from a national clinical audit of early inflammatory arthritis (EIA) shows considerable variability between hospitals in performance, unexplained by controlling for case-mix.

Objective: To explore the macro-level, meso-level and micro-level barriers and facilitators to the provision of good quality EIA care.

Methods: A qualitative study within 16 purposively sampled rheumatology units across England and Wales.

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Globally, 40 million people need palliative care; about 69% are people over 60 years of age. The highest proportion (78%) of adults are from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where palliative care still developing and is primarily limited to urban areas. This integrative review describes strategies used by LMICs to establish palliative care in rural areas.

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Background: Palliative care aims to reduce physical suffering and the emotional, spiritual, and psychosocial distress of life-limiting illness. Palliative care is a human right, yet there are vast disparities in its provision: of the 40 million people globally in need of palliative care, less than 10% receive it, largely in high-income countries. There is a particular paucity of data on palliative care needs across the spectrum of incurable disease in Ethiopia.

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