The National Burden of Neural Tube Defect in Ethiopia: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: In Ethiopia, 2/3 rd of the reproductive age women had folic acid deficiency. The prevalence of neural tube defect in Ethiopia is inconsistent across regions and lack of published peer-reviewed data on the pooled prevalence in Ethiopia, therefore, the purpose of this study is to assess the pooled prevalence at national level. Method: Pubmed, Cochrane library, Scopus, google scholar and google were searched using the searching terms and Boolean operators “neural tube defects” OR “NTD” AND “Ethiopia” in February 13 and 14 2020. Studies solely in Ethiopia and cross-sectional studies regardless of their period of study were included in this study. The main outcome measure of this study was neural tube defect; therefore, articles with only report of encephalocele/anencephaly/spinal bifida were excluded for not containing complete data. Data were found from only published reports and extracted into excel spread sheet. Prospero were explored for the presence of registered review, but current review is not registered. Finding: The searching yielded total of 636 titles. After progressive screening, finally 6 full text articles among 468,168 children were reviewed. The highest neural tube defect was observed in Tigray (131/10,000 births) while the lowest was in Amhara region (52/10,000 births). The pooled prevalence of neural tube defect in Ethiopia of random effect is 82/10,000, p<0.01 with 95% CI [66/10,000 – 98/10,000] and heterogeneity, (I2, 96%). Interpretation: This review suggested that the burden of NTD in Ethiopia is considerably high compared to the expected NTD if appropriate periconceptional folic acid has been attained. Funding Statement: There was no funding source for this study. Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.