Women’s Awareness of Obstetric Fistula and its Associated Factors Among Reproductive-Age Women in Ethiopia: A Multilevel Analysis Based on National Survey Data

ObjectiveThis study aimed to determine the magnitude and associated factors of women’s awareness of obstetric fistula (OF).MethodsThis community based crossectional study was conducted among 15,683 reproductive-aged women. A multi-level multivariable logistic regression analysis employed. A 95% CI and p-value < 0.05 were used to declare statistical significance.ResultThe magnitude of women’s awareness of OF was 38% [95%CI: 0.37, 0.39]. Individual level variables such as being in the age group 20-25 [AOR=1.17; 95%CI:1.02, 1.35], 26-30 [AOR=1.50; 95%CI: 1.27, 1.76] and >30 [AOR=1.76; 95%CI: 1.50, 2.07], being Muslim religion follower [AOR = 0.83; 95%CI: 0.73, 0.94], attending primary education [AOR=1.70; 95%CI: 1.53, 1.89], attending secondary education [AOR=3.43; 95%CI: 2.95, 3.99] and attending higher education [AOR=5.88; 95%CI: 4.66, 7.42], history of pregnancy termination [AOR=1.31; 95%CI: 1.13, 1.51], media exposure at least once a week [AOR= 1.33; 95%CI: 1.2, 1.49], internet use [AOR= 2.25; 95%CI: 1.84, 2.75], medium house hold wealth [AOR=1.17; 95%CI: 1.02, 1.34], rich house hold wealth [AOR=1.50; 95%CI:1.31, 1.72] and community level factors including high community media exposure [AOR = 1.30; 95%CI: 1.05, 1.61], high community ANC rate [AOR=1.66; 95%CI: 1.37, 2.02] and low health facility distance problem [AOR=1.49; 95%CI: 1.23, 1.81] were significantly associated with awareness of OF.ConclusionThe magnitude of women’s awareness of OF was very low in Ethiopia. Maternal age, religion, being educated, media exposure, being from a wealthier household, low health facility distance problem, and high community ANC rate were significantly and positively associated factors with awareness of OF.

Parameterized Intractability of Even Set and Shortest Vector Problem

The -Even Set problem is a parameterized variant of the Minimum Distance Problem of linear codes over , which can be stated as follows: given a generator matrix and an integer , determine whether the code generated by has distance at most , or, in other words, whether there is a nonzero vector such that has at most nonzero coordinates. The question of whether -Even Set is fixed parameter tractable (FPT) parameterized by the distance has been repeatedly raised in the literature; in fact, it is one of the few remaining open questions from the seminal book of Downey and Fellows [1999]. In this work, we show that -Even Set is W [1]-hard under randomized reductions. We also consider the parameterized -Shortest Vector Problem (SVP) , in which we are given a lattice whose basis vectors are integral and an integer , and the goal is to determine whether the norm of the shortest vector (in the norm for some fixed ) is at most . Similar to -Even Set, understanding the complexity of this problem is also a long-standing open question in the field of Parameterized Complexity. We show that, for any , -SVP is W [1]-hard to approximate (under randomized reductions) to some constant factor.