SynthesisThe Lancet. Global health2025
The prevalence of hypoxaemia in paediatric and adult patients in health-care facilities in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in The Lancet. Global health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Correlation of pulse oximetry with arterial blood gas-derived oxygen saturation in ICU patients on supplemental oxygen: a cross-sectional study.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2026Article
- Added value of routine pulse oximetry use within Integrated Management of Childhood Illness guidelines in primary care in West Africa: insight from AIRE.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Does previous COVID-19 severity affect propofol sedation safety during ERCP?: A prospective observational study.Medicine · 2026Observational
- Predicting referral need for febrile children in low-resource community settings in South and Southeast Asia.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Medical oxygen and respiratory support requirements for patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in 23 low-income and middle-income countries: a prospective, observational cohort study.The Lancet. Global health · 2026Observational
- A retrospective cohort assessing practices of hypoxemia management for inpatients of Rwandan public hospitals.Discover public health · 2026Article
- Prevalence of hypoxemia among sick children, aged under-five years, seeking healthcare at primary health facilities in Uttar Pradesh, India: an observational-cohort study.The Lancet regional health. Southeast Asia · 2025Article
- Pulse oximetry to optimise first-line care and save children's lives: evidence from the AIRE project in West Africa.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Reducing global inequities in medical oxygen access: the Lancet Global Health Commission on medical oxygen security.The Lancet. Global health · 2025Review
- Risk factors for and outcomes of intraoperative desaturation in neonates undergoing non-cardiac surgery: a retrospective study.World journal of pediatric surgery · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHypoxaemia (low oxygen saturation in blood) is a key predictor of in-hospital mortality, affecting people of all ages with many different conditions. Early detection and treatment of hypoxaemia are critical, but there are few data to quantify hypoxaemia burden outside the child pneumonia population. We aimed to estimate hypoxaemia prevalence for adults and children with acute illness attending health facilities in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs).
methodsWe conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis, searching MEDLINE, PubMed, Embase, Cumulated Index in Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Index Medicus, and Google Scholar for studies reporting hypoxaemia prevalence among patients attending health facilities. We included articles with original data on peripheral blood oxygen saturation (SpO
findingsWe identified 9173 unique records from searches and included 213 in meta-analyses involving 601 757 participants. The majority of studies were from the World Bank regions of sub-Saharan Africa (108 [51%] of 213) or south Asia (58 [27%]). The pooled prevalence of hypoxaemia among admitted patients was 24·5% (95% CI 19·9-29·4) for neonates (aged 0-28 days), 12·1% (10·0-14·4) for children (aged 1 month-17 years), and 10·8% (4·9-18·7) for adults (aged ≥18 years). Hypoxaemia prevalence was highest in neonatal and primary respiratory conditions but still common in many other conditions. Hypoxaemia was associated with 4·84 (95% CI 4·11-5·69) times higher odds of death than no hypoxaemia.
interpretationHypoxaemia is common across all age groups and a range of primary respiratory and other critical illnesses and is strongly associated with death. These estimates will inform oxygen-related strategies and programmes, and integration of pulse oximetry and oxygen into clinical guidelines, service structures, and strategies for maternal, neonatal, child, adolescent, and adult health.
fundingBill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the ELMA Foundation, and Unitaid.
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