Childhood undernutrition in North Africa: systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Undernutrition remains a major public health issue in low- and middle-income countries. Objective Our aim for this study was to identify the factors contributing to undernutrition in children under five years old in North Africa.

Methods

We searched five electronic bibliographic databases (Ovid MEDLINE, Web of Science, Embase (Ovid), ProQuest, and CINAHL) for eligible observational studies published after 2006. STATA version 17 software was used to calculate the odds ratios between associated factors and indicators of undernutrition, with 95% confidence intervals. For each factor, the overall odds were pooled using a forest plot. Due to the significant heterogeneity among the studies (I2 > 50%), a random-effects model was used, and sensitivity analysis was conduct

SUBMITTER: Elmighrabi NF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10375933 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature