SynthesisSystematic reviews2025
Prevalence and risk factors of under-five mortality due to severe acute malnutrition in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Systematic reviews, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed.
- Death after discharge among children living with HIV admitted with suspected sepsis in Uganda: A secondary analysis of two prospective observational studies.HIV medicine · 2026Observational
- Article
- Assessing WHO prioritisation criteria for children 6-59 months treated for moderate wasting in a MUAC-based protocol: a multicountry analysis in West and Central Africa.BMJ global health · 2026Observational
- Multidimensional analysis of nutritional status among children under 5 years in Africa, 1990-2024.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The Epidemiology of the Global Syndemic in Africa: New Evidence and Key Insights.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- The Impact of Malnutrition on Host Responses to Severe Infection in Adults: A Multicenter Analysis from Uganda.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- The interplay between malnutrition, persistent diarrhea, lactose intolerance, and food associated gut dysbiosis in children; a comprehensive review.BMC pediatrics · 2026Review
- Article
- Exploring Beyond the Cyclical Dynamics of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene With Coexisting Forms of Malnutrition Among Children Under 5 in Pakistan.International journal of pediatrics · 2026Article
- Changes in household hygiene behaviors and multiple childhood health outcomes following health-behavioral education and health-care facility support: a pre-post intervention study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Predictors of Tuberculous Meningitis Mortality Among Persons with HIV in Mozambique.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2025Article
- Acute Malnutrition in Under-Five Children in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: Risk Factors and Implications for Dietary Quality.Nutrients · 2025Article
- Links between household food consumption and nutritional status of children aged 6-59 months: a case study in Burkina Faso.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDespite a global drop of under-five mortality by 59% between 1990 and 2019, it remains high in Low- and Middle- income Countries (LMICs)with a preponderance in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), Southern and Central Asia. Besides preterm and intrapartum complications, undernutrition contributes 45% of the deaths in these developing regions. In Africa, under-five mortality due to severe acute malnutrition (SAM) has stagnated at 10-40%, higher than WHO targets and the SDGs projections.
methodsWe searched MEDLINE (via PubMed), Scopus, Web of Science, Science direct, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library and Open Grey databases for literature reporting under-five mortality due to SAM in Africa from 2014 to 2024. Estimates of the primary and secondary outcomes were pooled using a random-effects meta-analysis due to the anticipated between study heterogeneity.
resultsFifty-two out of 82 studies (63.4%) analyzed reported an overall under-five mortality of 11% (95%CI: 0.08-0.13). Diarrheal diseases, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and pneumonia were the three most frequently reported risk factors associated with mortality by 21 (40.1%), 20 (38.5%), and 14 (26.9%) studies, respectively. No significant regional variation was found.
conclusionUnder-five mortality due to SAM in Africa is still high as reported in the included studies. There were no regional variations. Diarrheal diseases, HIV and pneumonia were the most frequently reported risk factors associated with under-five mortality due to SAM in Africa.
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