SynthesisJournal of epidemiology and global health2025
The Burden of Asymptomatic Malaria Infection in Children in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Exploring Barriers to Elimination and Prevention.
Synthesis in Journal of epidemiology and global health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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
12 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Prevalence and associated factors of microscopy-confirmed malaria among the general population in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Malaria journal · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence and associated risk factors of asymptomatic malaria in Nigeria: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Malaria journal · 2025Pooled it
- Malaria Incidence, Growth, and their Relationship among a Cohort of Malawian Children.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2026Article
- Genetic diversity of the Plasmodium falciparum msp2 gene in children from the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo: a comparative study of clinical and subclinical infections.BMC medical genomics · 2026Article
- Article
- School-aged children as a silent reservoir of Plasmodium falciparum: findings from a cross-sectional survey conducted in Burkina Faso in 2022.Malaria journal · 2026Article
- Article
- Burden of asymptomatic malaria among school-aged children: Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis.PloS one · 2026Article
- Burden and determinants of asymptomatic malaria among adults living in urban and rural areas in Gabon in 2023: a community-based cross-sectional study.Malaria journal · 2025Article
- Malaria Parasite Cell Classification Using Transfer Learning with State-of-the-Art CNN Architectures.Biology · 2025Article
- Impact of asymptomatic malaria infection on children's growth in rural Malawi.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Hidden reservoirs of infection: prevalence and risk factors of asymptomatic malaria in a high-endemic region of Zambia.Malaria journal · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMalaria remains a major public health problem that continues to cause death in under-five children nearly every minute. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to determine the pooled prevalence and predictors of asymptomatic malaria in children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
methodsRelevant studies were retrieved from Web of Science, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Google Scholar, Gray Literature, Embase, and African Online Journal databases published between 2014 and 2024. Data quality was assessed by a tool developed by Hoy and colleagues and classified as low, moderate, or high risk of bias. We performed a random effects model and sub-group analysis by age group, region, and diagnostic methods. The protocol was registered in the PROSPERO (CRD42024584354).
resultsA total of 24 cross-sectional studies with 19,169 participants from 10 Sub-Saharan Africa countries were included in the analyses under the age of 15 years. The overall prevalence of asymptomatic malaria was 25% (95% CI: 20-30%) and showed no evidence of publication bias. Utilization of insecticide-treated nets was significantly associated with asymptomatic malaria. In addition, the overall prevalence of anemia in asymptomatic Plasmodium-infected children under the age of 15 was found to be 35% (95% CI: 24-46%). Subgroup analysis showed significant regional and diagnostic tool differences in asymptomatic Plasmodium infection.
conclusionThe findings of this study revealed a high prevalence of asymptomatic plasmodium infection in children with significant regional variations. There was a significant association with anemia and the utilization of insecticide-treated nets.
Indexed as
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.