Proportion of structural congenital anomaly in eastern Africa; A systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction: Birth of abnormal child is a stressful situation for mothers and for the society. Globally, about 8 million children were born each year with congenital abnormalities. Out of this, 3.3 million children died before the age of five years while 3.2 million survivors suffer from severe mental or physical disability. As it was a major global concern, the trends of congenital anomaly were also altered using advancing technology during antenatal care in diagnosing and treating the defects. Methods: The review has one objective, and the search strategy were performed based on the review question or objective. The search of articles was performed by 5 investigators. Electronic databases mainly PubMed and google scholar were used for published studies. Gray literatures like research and trials registers, thesis and dissertations catalog, and organizational reports were also scrutinized independently using the search logic grid by all authors. Ethics and dissemination: This review used published data, and the ethical approval was not applicable. This systematic review and meta-analysis were aimed to indicate the burden of structural congenital anomaly in eastern Africa for policy makers. The result also indicated for the region, and will be released online to make it available for all countries. Results: The pooled proportion of structural congenital anomaly in eastern Africa was 4.54 per 1000 with 95% CI of (4.23-4.85). Of the researches included in this review the maximum proportion of structural congenital anomaly was 6.08 per 1000 children and the minimum structural congenital anomaly was 3.97 per 1000 children. Conclusions: According to the findings of this meta-analysis, the pooled proportion of structural congenital anomalies is high in relative to WHO’s worldwide structural congenital anomaly report. Congenital anomaly imposed huge financial, social and psychological costs on individuals, and heath care systems annually. Therefore, promotion of maternal health with an emphasis on ANC follow-up would be essential to decrease the prevalence of birth anomaly. Protocol registration: The protocol for this review has been published in the PROSPERO, International Prospective Register of systematic reviews at (http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO with a protocol identification number of CRD42019123190.