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Article History

Received: 2 January 2025

Accepted: 27 October 2025

First Online: 7 November 2025

Declaration

:

: The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee (REC) of Wolaita Sodo University College of Medicine and Health Sciences School of Public Health (with ID No. CHSM/ERC/10/2022) before data collection. Permission was obtained from the Wolaita Zone Health Department to get access to participants and health institutions. For the exit interview with patients, informed verbal consent was sought from each eligible client at the selected health institutions. Authors reporting experiments on humans and/or the use of human tissue samples/human data must confirm that all experiments were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations of the Declaration of Helsinki. For the current study, informed verbal consent was sought as per the study protocol, which was approved by the Research Ethics Committee (REC) of Wolaita Sodo University College of Medicine and Health Sciences, as it’s supposed to be more convenient for less sensitive issues like that of this study. This study did not utilize experiments on humans or use human tissue samples. The objectives of the study and its benefits were explained to the participants in a language they could understand. Study participants were informed that the study would not have any risks. Furthermore, items seeking personal information (like names, phone numbers, and identification numbers) were kept confidential.

: Not applicable. The study does not include any individual person’s identifiable data or images.

: The Author declares that there are No competing interests.