Knowledge and practice on prevention of obstetric fistula among skilled birth attendants in public health centers in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Background: Obstetric fistula although is eliminated in high income countries, it remains prevalent and debilitating condition in many parts of the developing world leaving women with the immediate consequences, such as leakage of urine or feces or both and has been observed since women first began delivering children despite of the fact that it is completely preventable if high quality basic and comprehensive maternal health services are available to all woman during pregnancy and childbirth by a well-trained and knowledgeable skilled birth attendants.
Objective: The objective of this study was to assess knowledge and practice on prevention of Obstetric Fistula among skilled birth attendants in public Health Centers in Addis Ababa.
Methods: Institutional based Quantitative Cross sectional study was undertaken in public health centers in Addis Ababa. A multi staged systematic random sampling technique was implemented to select a total of 548 skilled birth attendants. The data was collected by using self-administered questionnaire prepared in English language from March–April 2016 after ensuring that all requirement of Ethical consideration is fulfilled. The collected data was cleaned, entered and analyzed using SPSS Version 20 statistical software. A logistic regression statistical model was used for analysis. Descriptive statistics with frequency and percentages, table’s graphs and cross-tabulations was used. 
Results: This study revealed that 67% of skilled birth attendants had good knowledge on prevention of obstetric fistula and in-service training related to obstetric fistula (p-value, 0.03), resource availability (p-value, 0.002) and service year (p-value, 0.006) were significantly associated. About 66.2% of skilled birth attendants had good practice and pre-service training (p-value, 0.0001), in-service training (p-value, 0.028), resource availability (p-value, 0.003), qualification (p-value, 0.001) and knowledge (p-value, 0.001) were factors independently associated with practice on prevention of obstetric fistula. 
Conclusion: In conclusion majority of skilled birth attendants were found to have good knowledge and good practice towards prevention of obstetric fistula.