ReviewInternational journal of rheumatology2023
Rheumatic Heart Disease in East Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
Review in International journal of rheumatology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 11 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Cardiopulmonary bypass complications and their predictors in open-heart surgery at a tertiary cardiac care facility in Tanzania.Global cardiology science & practice · 2026Article
- Burden, spectrum, and treatment gaps in cardiac diseases in Ethiopia: an 11-year analysis of 10,999 patients at a National Charity Cardiac Center.BMC research notes · 2026Article
- Genetic Susceptibility to Rheumatic Heart Disease: A Narrative Literature Review Highlighting Evidence From African Populations and Research Gaps in Sudan.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease.Nature reviews. Disease primers · 2026Review
- Article
- Rheumatic Heart Disease in Pregnancy in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Series Emphasizing Gaps in Access to Definitive Care.Clinical Medicine Insights. Cardiology · 2026Article
- Self-Supervised Multi-Task Learning for the Detection and Classification of RHD-Induced Valvular Pathology.Journal of imaging · 2025Article
- Transformation of Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Services at Benjamin Mkapa Hospital, Tanzania: Findings and Experiences from 1,313 Cardiovascular Procedures in Five Years.Global heart · 2025Article
- Cardiac Surgery to Manage Rheumatic Heart Disease in Africa Is Complex - a Geographic Perspective.Global heart · 2025Article
- Behavioral problems in children with unoperated rheumatic heart disease at national referral hospital in Ethiopia: an observational study.BMC psychiatry · 2024Observational
- Burden and Temporal Trends of Valvular Heart Disease-Related Heart Failure From 1990 to 2019 and Projection Up to 2030 in Group of 20 Countries: An Analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Article
- A plea for urgent action: Addressing the critical shortage of cardiothoracic surgical workforce in the COSECSA region.World journal of surgery · 2024Article
- Challenges Faced and Lessons Learned: The Journey of a 22-Year-Old Male with a Mechanical Heart Valve Complicated by Ischemic Stroke in a Developing Country: A Sub-Saharan Africa Prospect.International medical case reports journal · 2024Article
- Spectrum of Heart Diseases in Children in a National Cardiac Referral Center Tanzania, Eastern Africa: A Six-Year Overview.Global heart · 2024Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Despite being a grave problem, there is little information on rheumatic heart disease's prevalence in East Africa. Therefore, the purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to estimate the pooled prevalence of rheumatic heart disease in East Africa. Materials and Methods: A computerized systematic search of using multiple database searching engines was performed in search of relevant English articles from the inception of the databases to December 2019. It was done in accordance with the preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis (PRISMA) standard. The funnel plot was used to assess publication bias. R and RStudio for Windows were used for all statistical analysis. The random-effect model was used for calculating the pooled estimate of the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease. Results: The database search retrieved 1073 papers, and 80 articles (78 cross-sectional and two cohort study designs) with a total of 184575 individuals were found to be appropriate for the review. In East Africa, the overall prevalence of rheumatic heart disease was 14.67% (95% CI: 13.99% to 15.35%). In Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, and Sudan, respectively, the subgroup analysis of rheumatic heart disease pooled prevalence was 22% (95% CI: 13% to 36%), 11% (95%t CI: 5% to 20%), 9% (95%t CI: 5% to 16%), and 3% (95%t CI: 1% to 10%), while the pooled prevalence of rheumatic heart disease in adults was 20% (95% CI: 12% to 30%), and in children, it was 4% (95% CI: 2% to 8%). Conclusions: From this report, the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease in East Africa is very high, affecting about one in seven people. Therefore, future strategies should emphasize preventive measures at appropriate times to minimize the burden of this type of preventable heart disease.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.