Prevalence of active trachoma among 1-9 years of age children in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the pooled prevalence of active trachoma among 1-9 years old children in Ethiopia.

Design: A systematic review and meta-analysis were employed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews.

Data sources: Medline/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, African Journal of Online and Google scholar databases were systematically explored to find studies published in English until July 2023.

Eligibility criteria: The following criteria apply: (1) condition (Co): studies examined the prevalence of trachoma among children (1-9) years old; (2) context (Co): studies conducted in Ethiopia; (3) population (Pop): studies that were done among children (1-9) years old; (4) study type: observational studies and (5) language: studies published in English.

Data extraction and synthesis: The data were extracted using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. DerSimonian-Laird random effect model was used to estimate the pooled prevalence of active trachoma among 1-9 years old children. Cochrane Q-tests and I² statistics were used across studies to assess heterogeneity. To identify possible publication bias, Egger's test was performed.

Primary outcome: Prevalence of active trachoma among children aged (1-9 years old)".

Results: Overall, a total of 42 articles with 235 005 study participants were included in the final analysis. The estimated pooled prevalence of active trachoma using random effect model was 24% (95% CI 20% to 27%). The subgroup analysis by region revealed that the highest prevalence of trachoma was 36% (95% CI 13% to 58%) in the Tigray region, and publication year revealed the prevalence of trachoma was decreasing from 32% to 19% after 2015.

Conclusion: In this review, the pooled prevalence of active trachoma was found to be high in Ethiopia compared with WHO threshold level. This underscores the need for increased focus on high-risk age groups to decrease trachoma and to achieve the elimination of trachoma from the country by 2030.