Variability and awareness of obstetric fistula among women of reproductive age in sub-Saharan African countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Obstetric fistula among women of reproductive age is a significant public health issue in developing countries, including Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the pooled awareness of obstetric fistula among women of reproductive age in Sub-Saharan Africa and its variation between countries have not yet been studied. Hence, the review aims to assess variability and awareness of obstetric fistula among women of reproductive age in Sub-Saharan African Countries. Method: Articles were searched using different electronic databases, such as PubMed, Web of science, science direct (Scopus), Google scholar, and HINARI and manual search without regard to publication date. A random-effects model was used to ascertain the pooled prevalence of obstetric fistula awareness among women of reproductive age in Sub-Saharan Africa. Publication bias was checked by using funnel plot and Egger's test at a 5% level of significance. I2 test statistics was performed to evaluate heterogeneity among included studies. In addition, to identify the possible reason for the potential heterogeneity between the studies, sub-group and meta-regression analyses were conducted. A sensitivity analysis was performed to determine the impact of individual research on the overall results. The data were extracted by using Microsoft excel and analyzed using statistical software STATA/SE version 17. Result: A total of 22 studies with 79,693 women of reproductive age were included in this systematic review and meta-analyses. In Sub-Saharan Africa, the pooled prevalence of awareness towards obstetric fistula among women of reproductive age was 40.85% (95% CI: 33.48, 48.22%). Analysis of the subgroups by specific countries revealed significant variation. The highest awareness of obstetric fistula was found among Tanzanian women of reproductive age (61.10%, 95% CI: 55.87–66.33%), whereas the lowest awareness was found in research from the Gambia (12.80%, 95% CI: 12.20–13.40%).The likelihood of obstetric fistula awareness were lower by a factor of 0.424 among studies with sample sizes greater than 3542 (β = −0.424 (95% CI: −0.767 to 0.081), p -value <0.05). Conclusion: According to the current review, there is a low level of awareness about obstetric fistula among women of reproductive age in sub-Saharan Africa, and the results of the sub-group analysis by country showed wide variations. Therefore, we emphasize the need for country-specific public health initiatives to raise awareness about obstetric fistula among women of reproductive age, which could reduce the risk of delayed treatment.