Prevalence of anemia in Somalia: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 3988 participants

2024

Iraqi Journal of Hematology, Vol 13, Iss 2, Pp 170-176 (2024)

The incidence of anemia in Somalia is of medical concerns, especially among neonates and pregnant women. Despite the available intervention of the government to provide iron-based supplement, the associated morbidity of anemia in Somalia is still of medical relevance. This systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to provide detailed information on the prevalence of anemia in Somalia. A systematic search for articles describing the prevalence of anemia within Somalia was conducted following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis guidelines. A meta-analysis was performed on our eligible studies using the random effect model. Our search returned 13 eligible articles involving 3988 participants within Somalia. There was a relative high prevalence of anemia in Somalia in this study 39.7% (95% CI: 26.3–53.1; I2=99.26%, P≤ 0.001). A higher proportion of these cases was from pregnant women. Cross-sectional study designs had more incidence of anemia 39.8% (95% CI: 29.0–51.7) than retrospective studies 29.2% (95% CI: 17.0–45.3) in this review. There was a variation in the distribution of anemia in relation to the publication years at P< 0.001. Evidence from this study reveals that there is a high prevalence of anemiain Somalia and effort toward strategic treatment should be prioritized.

article

English

Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications, 2024.

anemia, meta-analysis, prevalence, somalia, systematic review, Diseases of the blood and blood-forming organs, RC633-647.5