Prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy in Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

AbstractIntroductionDiabetes mellitus is a global health care problem and financially costly. Diabetic peripheral neuropathy is common and frequent cause of morbidity and disability. Despite its serious complications, limited evidence is available on the magnitude of diabetic peripheral neuropathy among patient with diabetes mellitus. Hence, the objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to estimate the pooled prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy among patients with diabetes mellitus in Africa.MethodsPubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Africa journal online, WHO afro library and Cochrane review were systematically searched online to retrieve related articles. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guideline was followed. Heterogeneity across the included studies was evaluated by inconsistency index (I2). Publication bias was examined by funnel plot and Egger’s regression test. The random-effect model was fitted to estimate the pooled prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy among diabetes mellitus patients. All statistical analysis was done using STATA version 14 software for windows.ResultsTwenty-three studies which comprises of 269,691 participants were included in the meta-analysis. The overall pooled prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy was 46% (95% CI:36.21-55.78%). Based on the subgroup analysis, the highest magnitude of diabetic peripheral neuropathy was reported in West Africa 49.4% (95% CI: 32.74, 66.06).ConclusionThis study revealed that the overall prevalence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy is relatively high in Africa. Hence, diabetic peripheral neuropathy needs situation based intervention and preventive strategy depending on their country context. Furthermore, further meta-analysis study is needed to identify associated factors for the occurrence of diabetic peripheral neuropathy.