SynthesisThe Lancet. Global health2015
Prevalence of malaria infection in pregnant women compared with children for tracking malaria transmission in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in The Lancet. Global health, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 74 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Antenatal Care as a Platform for Malaria Surveillance: Utilizing Community Prevalence Measures From the New Nets Project to Validate ANC Surveillance of Malaria in Burkina Faso
Antenatal Care as a Platform for Malaria Surveillance: Utilizing Community Prevalence Measures From the New Nets Project to Validate ANC Surveillance of Malaria in Mozambique
Pregnant Women Attending Antenatal Care Services as a Sentinel Population for Antimalarial Drug Resistance Genetic Surveillance in Africa
Who cites it
74 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Methemoglobin levels in malaria: a systematic review and meta-analysis of its association with Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax infections and disease severity.Scientific reports · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Prevalence of Pregnancy Associated Malaria in India.Frontiers in global women's health · 2022Pooled it
- Effectiveness of Intermittent Screening and Treatment of Malaria in Pregnancy on Maternal and Birth Outcomes in Selected Districts in Rwanda: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2023Trial
- Trial
- Beyond national household surveys: routine and alternative approaches to sustain robust evidence-based decision making.Malaria journal · 2026Review
- Observational
- Article
- Warming temperatures reduce lifespan and vectorial capacity of Anopheles mosquitoes in Ghana.Infectious Disease Modelling · 2026Article
- Border Region Surveillance of Malaria Drug Resistance, Northern Burundi, 2023-2024.Emerging infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Antenatal care surveillance for monitoring malaria prevalence and intervention coverage: a multicountry analysis.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Malaria-anemia comorbidity and its determinants among pregnant women in high- and moderate-malaria-risk countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.Infectious diseases of poverty · 2025Article
- Spatial variation and multilevel determinants of malaria infection among pregnant women in Sub-Saharan Africa: using malaria indicator surveys.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Assessment of malaria treatment interventions: a critical analysis of government initiatives and causes of treatment failure at Port Loko Government Hospital, Sierra Leone.Malaria journal · 2025Article
- Pregnant women as a sentinel population for genomic surveillance of malaria in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a population-based study.The Lancet. Global health · 2025Observational
- Adverse pregnancy outcomes in maternal malarial infection: A systematic review and meta-analysis.New microbes and new infections · 2024Review
- Prevalence and factors associated with placental malaria in Lira District, Northern Uganda: a cross-sectional study.Malaria journal · 2024Article
- Assessing the Risks of Pesticide Exposure: Implications for Endocrine Disruption and Male Fertility.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Genomic malaria surveillance of antenatal care users detects reduced transmission following elimination interventions in Mozambique.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Placental Malaria and Its Relationship with Neonatal Birth Weight among Primigravidae: An Analytical Cross-sectional Study.Exploratory research and hypothesis in medicine · 2024Article
14 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundIn malarious areas, pregnant women are more likely to have detectable malaria than are their non-pregnant peers, and the excess risk of infection varies with gravidity. Pregnant women attending antenatal clinic for their first visit are a potential pragmatic sentinel group to track the intensity of malaria transmission; however, the relation between malaria prevalence in children, a standard measure to estimate malaria endemicity, and pregnant women has never been compared.
methodsWe obtained data on malaria prevalence in pregnancy from the Malaria in Pregnancy Library (January, 2015) and data for children (0-59 months) were obtained from recently published work on parasite prevalence in Africa and the Malaria in Pregnancy Library. We used random effects meta-analysis to obtain a pooled prevalence ratio (PPR) of malaria in children versus pregnant women (during pregnancy, not at delivery) and by gravidity, and we used meta-regression to assess factors affecting the prevalence ratio.
findingsWe used data from 18 sources that included 57 data points. There was a strong linear relation between the prevalence of malaria infection in pregnant women and children (r=0·87, p<0·0001). Prevalence was higher in children when compared with all gravidae (PPR=1·44, 95% CI 1·29-1·62; I(2)=80%, 57 studies), and against multigravidae (1·94, 1·68-2·24; I(2)=80%, 7 studies), and marginally higher against primigravidae (1·16, 1·05-1·29; I(2)=48%, 8 studies). PPR was higher in areas of higher transmission.
interpretationMalaria prevalence in pregnant women is strongly correlated with prevalence data in children obtained from household surveys, and could provide a pragmatic adjunct to survey strategies to track trends in malaria transmission in Africa.
fundingThe Malaria in Pregnancy Consortium, which is funded through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK; US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Wellcome Trust, UK.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.