Introduction: Food is an important basic necessity that provides nutrient and energy for growth and development of humans. Food handlers play a crucial role in ensuring food hygiene as well as the transmission of food poisoning. To ensure that consumers are served safe food, handlers should take safety precautions during preparation, cooking, storage and serving. However, most restaurants do not take into consideration the specific sanitary requirements needed for various steps in food preparation. This study was aimed at assessing Knowledge, Altitude and Practices towards food hygiene among food handlers around selected university around Rubaga Divison in Kampala district Methodology: A cross sectional descriptive study was carried out on 191 food handlers who met the inclusion criteria. Data was collected using a pre tested questionnaires with the aid of research assistants and analysed using SPSS. Results: The majority of food handlers were aged 25 to 35 years. 85% of food handlers had acceptable knowledge about food hygiene, likewise the attitude72.3%, but good practice was practiced by very few handlers. 50.3% did not keep the work surface clean and disinfected, 25.7% dried dishes with their aprons, 47.1% cooked meat for 45 minutes, 39.8% did not wash vegetables before cooking, 48.7% had long nails and 40.3% continue to work even though they had an infectious disease like flue. Conclusion: The knowledge and attitude about food hygiene was good amongst food handlers but the practice of food hygiene was only fair. Direct observation of hygiene practices observation amongst these handlers revealed that most of them dried their hands with their aprons after washing them. The responsible authority should therefore continuously inspect these restaurants and set up safety precautions to protect the public

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is the cause of 1, 8 million deaths annually, 99% of the deaths occurs in the developing countries and among the poorest people of these countries. Studies between high and low income countries demonstrate that rates of TB are significantly higher in poorer populations. World Health Organization introduced DOTS as global strategy for providing TB services which was expected to be delivered primarily by government run public health services (WHO, 2015). Objective: The main objective was to assess the factors influencing adherence to anti tuberculosis treatment among pulmonary tuberculosis patients attending Mpigi general hospital Method: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted using qualitative method of data collection. 133 respondents were sampled using simple random sampling technique. Responded were interviewed with a structured standard questionnaire. 4- item Morisky Medication Adherence Score (MMAS)was used to measure adherence. Results: 36% of the study participants were found to be adherent to their prescribed medication Conclusion: High percentages of respondents were not adherent to their medication. Factors that influenced adherence were; Age, Marital status, occupation, level of education , Smoking, drinking alcohol, meals per day, knowledge about TB, Medication availability in the hospital, distance from the hospital and co morbidity.

Background: Immunization is generally considered the most successful and cost-effective public health intervention employed today (CDC, 2011). The widespread use of vaccines for immunization, has resulted in the global eradication of smallpox, elimination of polio and measles from many countries. Coverage with the third dose of diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus vaccine (DPT3) is a widely used indicator of the performance of countries’ routine immunization services. In Uganda WHO /UNICEF, 2014 estimated that immunization coverage at on DPT 3 was only 52%. DPT vaccine is given by injection on the left upper thigh at 6 weeks, 10 weeks and 14 weeks. Various approaches have been applied to understand immunization coverage problems. Objective: The purpose of study was to determine factors associated with uptake of DPT 3 Immunization amongst children aged 6-12 months in-order to contribute partly in the improvement of DPT3 immunization Methods: This research essentially took on a descriptive cross sectional survey design. In this study the target population was study caretakers of children aged 6-12 months, 384 caretakers of children aged 6-12 months in selected households in households Kawempe-Mbogo village, Kawempe division, Kampala District. Respondents were recruited using the probability simple random after mapping it gives all the household equal chance to participate. The researcher chose to use, structured interviews to collect the required data from the study respondents. The structured questionnaire was used to collect data from respondents and data was analyzed using SPSS version 20. Results: From the data analyzed, the level of completion of was moderate at 56.2%. Place of delivery, monthly income and payment for immunization services were significantly associated with DPT3 completion among the respondents children Conclusions and Recommendations: In conclusion, this study revealed that the DPT3 immunization completion was moderate. Therefore the study recommends increased awareness concerning delivery at health facilities should also be created among the community as this is associated with higher likelihood of childhood immunization and health facility that provide EPI services should strengthening of continuous staff motivation, regular supervision.

Introduction: Dysmenorrhea is pain associated with menstruation. It’s often an issue discussed in privacy yet continues to affect girls and women with grave impact on their education, social activities and work. General objective: To assess the factors that influence the prevalence of dysmenorrhea among students aged 18-45 years in institutions of higher learning in Kampala Capital city from July- August 2015. Methodology: A cross sectional study was employed to collect data on prevalence of dysmenorrhea and associated factors among 351 students of higher learning in Kampala who were selected using convenience sampling method. A self-administered questionnaire was utilized to collect this data with the help of trained research assistants. Data was analyzed using the following software: Epiinfo version 7 and SPSS version 20 for analysis. Results: The prevalence of dysmenorrhea was 75.8% and associated factors were found to be: having children (p<0.05) and daily consumption of chocolate (OR=0.09, p=0.011) or no sugary foods at all (OR=0.344, p=0.032) and no family history of dysmenorrhea (OR=2.583, p=0.001). Conclusion: The prevalence of dysmenorrhea was high which was influenced mainly by the number of children, no family history of dysmenorrhea and daily consumption of sugary foods. Recommendations: The high prevalence of dysmenorrhea among students requires health education about it, its causes, management, schools to stock analgesics in the school clinics and further research on its effect on academic life of the students.

Introduction: About 127,000 adolescents aged 10 to 19 are living with HIV in Uganda (UNAIDS, 2013). Both good adherence and retention in care are a prerequisite to successful management of adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV). Poor adherence is associated with poor treatment outcome (UNICEF, 2017). In the case of ART, optimal adherence is taking 95 % and above of prescribed medication (Gokarm et al., 2012). However in a study carried out in among adolescents attending Kalisizo Hospital, Kyotera District in July 2018 adherence was found to be low, thus a need for this study. This study aimed to assess the factors associated with adherence to antiretroviral treatment among adolescents attending Kalisizo Hospital, Kyotera District in July 2018. This was based on study specific objectives that included; assessing the individual, drug related and health care related factors associated with adherence to antiretroviral treatment among adolscents attending Kaliisizo Hospital Kyotera District. Methodology: The study used a descriptive cross-sectional design where a sample of 355 respondents who were adolescents between 10 and 25 on antiretroviral treatment was used. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select the respondents and data was collected using self-administered questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS. Results: The level of adherence to antiretroviral treatment was low at 33%. This was far lower than the national target of 90%. This was attributed to individual, drug and healthcare factors.Individual factors were; gender (χ2 = 59.13 P=0.001), age (χ2 = 9.74 P=0.021), marital status (χ2 = 8.10 P=0.044), Education (χ2 = 12.88 P=0.005), place of residence (χ2 = 50.94 P=0.001), family size (χ2 = 11.02, P=0.012) and religion (χ2 = 12.68, P=0.027). Drug related factors included; having all the drugs they were supposed to take (χ2 = 18.58, P=0.001), challenges faced with the drugs (χ2 = 19.16, P=0.001), Frequency of taking ARV pills in a day (χ2 = 4.06, P=0.044), challenges faced when taking ARVs (χ2 = 5.28, P=0.022) and accessibility to ARV drugs (χ2 = 4.27, P=0.039). Health related factors were; getting routine education and counseling about adherence to ARVs (χ2 = 71.63, P=0.001), source of information (χ2 = 62.03, P=0.001), had nearby health care facility to pick ARV drugs (χ2 = 68.70, P=0.001), Distance between health facility and respondents home (χ2 = 45.45, P=0.001), availability of ARV on appointment day (χ2 = 14.60, P=0.001), availability of health care workers for ARV services (χ2 = 31.41, P=0.001), How often have you been coming for ARVs refill at the clinic (χ2 = 60.25, P=0.001) and waiting time on the appointment day to pick the drugs(χ2 = 75.71, P=0.011). Conclusion: The level of adherence to antiretroviral treatment was low. This was attributed to missing of taking of drugs due stigma, drug stock outs, failure to get routine education about ART, distance to health facility, inadequacy of information given and long waiting time

Introduction: The topic of the study was Factors influencing uptake of safe medical male circumcision among male aged 18-38 years in Rweta village Pallisa district. Objective: Asses factors influencing the uptake of safe medical male circumcision among male aged 18-53years in Rweta village Pallisa district. Methodology: Crosses sectional study was done and correspondents conveniently selected questionnaires were used to obtain data. Results: client related factors found to influenced uptake of safe medical male circumcision (importance of male circumcision X2 71.578, p<0.001, would like to be circumcised X2 16.285, p<0.001, knew importance of safe medical male circumcision X2 52.187, p< 0.001, ever heard of medical circumcision (X2 7.925, p=0.005, ever heard of male circumcision reducing HIV infection X2 12.138, p<0.001 medical circumcision increases sexual feeling X2 32.114, p<0.001, fear of losing sexual time during recovery X2 18.984, p< 0.001, male circumcision is painful X2 43.675, p< 0.001) and only two health facility factors were found to influence uptake of safe medical male circumcision (welcoming health worker X2 7.644, p=0.006, and waiting time X2 9.479, p=0.002). The socio-demographic factors that influenced uptake of medical male circumcision (level of education X2 13.007, p=0.005, marital status X2 8.202, p=0.042, tribe X2 8.576, p= 0.036, religion X2 35.952, p <0.001, occupation X2 13.809, p 0.003). Conclusion: It was concluded that majorities of people knew the advantage of safe medical male circumcision informally and thus have fears in taking up medical male circumcision.

Back ground: The rising occurrence of teens‟ early sexual practice is one of the most alarming public health concerns, worldwide. Regardless of the proclamation of the jeopardy of early sex, students increasingly pick interest in sexual practice at a very early age than ever before. However, its magnitude in Nakaseke district is not known and it is crucial that we fathom the various potential factors that are associated with early sexual practice, targeting effective prevention interventions and policies to encourage postponing of sexual debut until marriage in order to improve the reproductive health of the teenagers. Objective: To determine the factors that influence early sexual practice among secondary school teenagers in Nakaseke District, Uganda. Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted and 391 secondary school students (13-19) years old were recruited from 4 secondary schools in Nakaseke district by a random sampling. Data was collected by use of structured questionnaire and focus group discussions, analysed by Graphical tests Prism 6.0. Chi-square tests were used to determine the relationship between demographic factors, social-economic factors, and environmental factors influencing early sexual practices. For all statistical tests, p value less than 0.05 were considered significant. Results: Almost half (47%) of the respondents had experienced intercourse before the age of 18 years, 38% started sex as early as before 13 years, 89.1% had sex willingly, 46.2% had multiple sexual partners. The findings also showed that sex (χ2=27.45, p-value of <0.001), religion (χ2 =37.31, p-value of 0.001), class (χ2=15.22, p-value of 0.001), parental formal education (χ2=8.377, p-value of 0.015), fasting (χ2 =99.37, p-value of 0.001) and cultural beliefs (χ2 =14.33, p-value of 0.001).Among the social economic factors, father‟s sexual education (χ2=8.704,3, p value 0.03 accessibility of information on media (χ2=12.42, p-value of 0.002), different sources of information on sexual issues (χ2=28.62, p-value of 0.001), parental employment (χ2 =21.94, p-value of 0.001), (χ2=124.1, p-value of 0.001), number of girl/ boyfriends (χ2= 15.98,1, p- value of 0.001), pressure for sex (χ2= 15.98, p-value of 0.001), peer influence (χ2=87.99, p-value of 0.001), lack of negotiation skills (χ2=203.2, p-value of 0.001), substance use (χ2=19.79, p-value of 0.001, attending night club ( χ2=38.73 p-value of 0.001), and sex for goods (χ2=116.4, p-value of 0.001) were significantly associated with sexual practice among the respondents. Conclusion and recommendation: Due to the high prevalence of early sexual practices as early as before 13 years of age, there is need for re enforcement of policies about adolescents, raise awareness to the public about the dangers of early sexual practices and address youths about sexual and reproductive health. In addition, the church in partnership with other organisations can actively emphasize the “NO SEX BEFORE MARRIAGE” message.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the level of knowledge and determine attitude towards use of condoms in HIV/AIDS prevention among women of reproductive age (15-49) in Makindye Division, to help find new methods, or improve the old methods to improve the knowledge and attitude towards condom use, and therefore increase level of condom use among women of reproductive age in order to reduce the increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS among women. METHODS: The study was cross sectional in nature and used a combination of quantitative data collection technique. An interviewer administered questionnaire was administered using systematic random sampling technique to survey of 334 women of reproductive age in Makindye division, from which results were analyzed using SPSS at Descriptive level. RESULTS: General knowledge about condom use in HIV prevention was high; (93.41%, 312/344) knew that HIV can be prevented by proper and consistent use of condoms. The attitude towards condom use was poor; (63.2%, 211/334) agreed that sex with a condom is un pleasurable, (59.6%, 199/344) agreed that it’s embarrassing for a woman to ask the partner to use a condom during sex, approximately half of the respondents (49.4%, 165/334) agreed that sex with a condom is painful. (46.1%, 154/334) of respondents were afraid that they might get physical/verbal/emotional abuse from the partner if she suggested condom use. (48.5%, 162/334) agreed that religion affects their need to use condoms, and of these the majority (40.1%, 65/334) said condom use is against the will of God. Many participants (48%, 160/334) believed that it is unnecessary to use a condom with a long term partner. Level of condom use among respondents was low; although (88.62%, 296/334) had ever used condoms, most (52%, 154/296) of the respondents used condoms mostly to prevent pregnancy, almost all the respondents who reported to have ever used a condom were conversant with the male type of condom, majority (74.77%, 221/296) had not been using condoms consistently in the last six months. (52.4%, 175/334) said they were not planning to continue using condoms consistently, (46.7%, 156/334) of respondents confessed to have had unprotected sex because condoms are not available at the time of sex. CONCLUSION: Despite the high levels of knowledge about condoms and condom use among women of reproductive age in Makindye division, several of them had a poor attitude towards condom use although some reflected a good attitude in relation to their condom use levels. The general low use was attributed to reasons like painful and unpleasurable sex associated with condoms in addition to the embarrassment women felt both in purchasing or carrying a condom during sexual intercourse because they considered this to be is a man’s responsibility.

Readmission of inpatients has been one of the most important problems in the field of psychiatry for the last decades. The problem has a major role in reducing the quality of life and increasing the years of lost life. About 14% of the global burden of disease is attributable to mental disorders and are projected to reach 15% by the year 2020.Even in sub-Saharan Africa, mental disorders account for nearly 10% of the total burden of disease. A case control study design was adopted by to investigate the factors associated with psychiatric readmission of patients to Mental Health Unit in Jinja Regional Referral Hospital. A sample of 98 cases and 98 controls were selected using a convenience sampling technique. A pre tested semi structure questionnaire was used to collect data which was analyzed using bivariate and multi variate analysis. The findings revealed that lack of drugs (<0.001), no history of aggression (p=0.013), no history of suicide (p=0.004), substance abuse (p=0.015) were significantly associated with psychiatric readmission of patients. The findings suggest need for increased funding to mental health units to ensure adequate and constant supply of drugs to patients. Offer psycho education to the patients and public about the effect of substance abuse, positive coping mechanism to minimize on the cases of readmission.

Introduction: A relationship between hyperuricemia and Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) has been established since the 1900's and commonly increased uric acid levels are found in patients with cardiovascular disease and many prospective and cohort studies have demonstrated uric acid as a CVD risk factor. However a controversy exists as to whether uric acid is an independent risk factor to CVD. This study therefore aimed at determining the relationship between uric acid and CVD risk markers in type II DM patients Materials & methods: A total number of 217type II DM participants were recruited. A prospective cross sectional study design was done. Blood samples were collected and run for lipid profile, uric acid and fasting blood sugar using the COBAS 600 Chemistry analyzer at Mulago National Referral Hospital clinical chemistry laboratory. Results: We recruited 218 type 2 diabetic patients aged 20 – 90 years .Fifty-five (55/218; 25.2%) of the participants were males and the mean age of the participants was 49 years with 95% confidence interval of 47 – 51years. The mean fasting glucose level of the participants was 10.4 mmol/l. Most of the participants (n=111; 50.9%) had poor glycemic control with fasting glucose level greater than7.0mmol/l and15 (6.9%) of the participants had low blood glucose (lower than 3.8mmol/l). Up to 34.4% of the participants had increased Total cholesterol level higher than 5.7mmol/l, with reduced HDL level (<0.91mmol/L).36.7% of the participants had high levels of low density lipoprotein (> 3.37) and only 19.7% had higher levels of HDL. Only Total Cholesterol and Low Density Lipoprotein correlate with age but the rest of the variables i.e. Uric Acid, Fasting Blood Glucose, High Density Lipoprotein and Triglycerides do not have any correlation with age. The mean uric acid level of the participants was 4.84mg/dl with a 95% confidence interval of 4.66 – 5.03mg/dl. Males had higher uric acid levels compared to females (mean of 5.07mg/dl 95% CI 4.61 – 5.56mg/dl compared to 4.72mg/dl with 95% CI of 4.57 – 4.98mg/dl in females) p-value 0.0043. Conclusion: Despite the several population and cohort studies that demonstrated a relationship between uric acid and CVD risk markers, the present study demonstrated that there is no significant relationship between uric acid and CVD risk markers. We suggest that a population study with a bigger sample size be done to confirm the findings.