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The Prevalence Rates of Acute Rheumatic Fever in Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Josephat M Chinawa1, Awoere T Chinawa2, Francis N Ogbuka2,3
1University of Nigeria Ituku/Ozalla and University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital Ituku/Ozalla, Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria.
Background:
Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) is an autoimmune disease that affects children.
Objectives:
The meta-analysis aimed to establish pooled prevalence values and heterogeneity in the prevalence values.
Methods:
The study's published articles were searched using PubMed, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Google Scholar, and the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science.
Results:
The pooled total sample size was 386, 875 and the mean (SD) of the pooled sample size was 15 475 ± 24 765.988 at 95% intervals. The analysis revealed an estimated overall prevalence of acute rheumatic fever (ARF) in Africa of 1% under both the common and random effects models. The between-study variance (τ²) was 2.5043, and the I² statistics- representing the percentage of total variability attributable to heterogeneity was extremely high at 98.2%.
Conclusion:
There is a clear statistical difference in prevalence rates and a high degree of heterogeneity in individual studies.
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