Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41068656›Full record

SynthesisBMC infectious diseases2025

Prevalence of diarrheal disease and its determinants among children under five in East Africa: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Bantie Getnet Yirsaw, Muluemebet Kassa Mezen, Aychew Kassa Belete, Fasiledes Fetene Asfaw, Shumye Tamrie Yerie, Ashenafi Kalayu Nega, Birhan Ambachew Taye

Abstract readSystematic ReviewMeta-Analysis
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in BMC infectious diseases, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
4citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

4 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Bantie Getnet YirsawDepartment of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Institute of Public Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, Gondar, Ethiopia. bantiegetnet@gmail.com.
Muluemebet Kassa MezenDepartment of Public Health, College of Health Science, Woldia University, Woldia, Ethiopia.
Aychew Kassa BeleteDepartment of Sport Science, College of Natural and Computational Science, Woldia University, Woldia, Ethiopia.
Fasiledes Fetene AsfawDepartment of Statistics, College of Natural and Computational Science, Woldia University, Woldia, Ethiopia.
Shumye Tamrie YerieDepartment of Statistics, College of Natural and Computational Science, Woldia University, Woldia, Ethiopia.
Ashenafi Kalayu NegaDepartment of Statistics, College of Natural and Computational Science, Woldia University, Woldia, Ethiopia.
Birhan Ambachew TayeDepartment of Statistics, College of Natural and Computational Science, Woldia University, Woldia, Ethiopia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

introductionDiarrhea is a public health challenge, the leading cause of malnutrition, morbidity, and mortality for children under five years globally. The disease is more common in low and middle-income countries such as Asia and Africa. While several studies were conducted on the prevalence of diarrheal disease among children under five, none of them showed the pooled prevalence of diarrheal disease. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the pooled prevalence and its determinants of diarrhea among children under five in East Africa.

methodsWe searched articles published between January 01/2020, to October 31/2024, on the prevalence of diarrheal disease among children under five years old using different databases such as PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct, and Google Scholar. We included studies that were published only in the English language and report the prevalence of diarrhea among children under five in East African countries. To get the total number of children under the age of five in our study, we summed the sample sizes from chosen studies.We checked the quality of each study using the Newcastle Ottawa Scale (NOS) quality assessment scale, and we performed the analysis by random effect model using statistical software STATA version 17 and R version 4.4.2.

resultA total of 162,388 children under five years were included in this review. About 93.33% of studies were conducted using cross-sectional study designs. The overall pooled prevalence of diarrhea among children under five in East Africa was 24.6% (95% CI: 22.7%, 26.6%). Improper waste disposal mechanism (OR = 1.67, 95% CI: 1.10, 2.53), large family size (OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.10, 1.72), two and above children under five years (OR = 1.6, 95% CI: 1.27, 2.03), unprotected source of water (OR=1.92, 95% CI: 1.39, 2.65), not vaccinated from rotavirus (OR = 2.06, 95% CI: 1.10, 3.85), unprotected toilet type (OR = 1.11, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.21), and households who spent more than thirty minutes to fetch water (OR = 1.35 95% CI: 1.05, 1.73) were risk factors responsible for the prevalence of diarrheal disease among children under five years.

conclusionsThe pooled prevalence of diarrhea among children under five in East Africa is still at a high level. The finding of this study recommends intervention on family planning initiatives, improving sanitation practices, increasing access to healthcare, providing access to clean water, rotavirus vaccination, and well-established waste disposal mechanisms, which could be the critical issues to reduce the prevalence of diarrheal disease among children under five years.

Indexed as

DiarrheaAfrica, EasternChild, PreschoolHumansInfantPrevalenceRisk FactorsDiarrheaEast africaMeta-analysisPrevalenceUnder five

Identifiers

PMID41068656
PMCPMC12512649

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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.