The Prevalence Rates of Acute Rheumatic Fever in Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

ABSTRACT:

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

SUBMITTER: Chinawa JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12304603 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature