Prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation among reproductive age women in Ethiopia: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Abstract Background: - Female genital mutilation (FGM) is the most common harmful traditional practice. Which is characterized by partial or total removal of the female external genitalia for non-therapeutic reasons. Globally, FGM affects about 130 million women and girls. Female Genital cutting (FGC) is a harmful traditional practice which affects the physical and mental health of girls and women. Methods: - Review and meta-analysis was conducted using the guideline of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). Both published and unpublished articles were searched. Articles were searched from different databases like PubMed, Popline, AJOL, EMBASE and gray literature like Google scholar and Google. Articles were searched using terms like “ prevalence ”, “ magnitude”, “female genital cutting” “female genital mutilation”, and “female circumcision” . Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal-Checklist for Analytical Cross Sectional Studies were used to assess the quality of the included paper. Egger’s test and I 2 statistics were used to assess Publication bias and heterogeneity respectively. Result and discussion: - About thirteen studies with total participants of 7850 were included for systematic review and meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of female genital mutilation among reproductive age women in Ethiopia was 87.5%: 95% CI (84.25, 90.78). ). I square test statistics showed high heterogeneity (I 2 =94.4, p=0.000) and Egger’s test was done to check for publication bias, but the test has revealed that there is no statistical significant publication bias (p-value=0.374). Conclusion: - The pooled prevalence of female genital mutilation is high in Ethiopia. Subgroup analysis does not revealed significant difference among different region found in the country.