Burden of anemia and its association with HAART in HIV infected children in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

• Published in: BMC infectious diseases Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 1032 - 9
• Main Authors: Wagnew, Fasil, Eshetie, Setegn, Alebel, Animut, Tesema, Cheru, Kibret, Getiye Dejenu, Gebrie, Alemu, Dessie, Getenet, Abajobir, Amanuel Alemu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 04.12.2019; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Acquired immune deficiency syndrome; Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome - epidemiology; AIDS; Analysis; Anemia; Anemia - chemically induced; Anemia - epidemiology; Anti-Retroviral Agents - adverse effects; Anti-Retroviral Agents - therapeutic use; Antiretroviral agents; Antiretroviral Therapy, Highly Active - adverse effects; Bias; Child; Children; Citation management software; Comorbidity; Complications; Epidemiology; Ethiopia - epidemiology; HAART; Hemoglobin; Heterogeneity; Highly active antiretroviral therapy; HIV; HIV Infections - drug therapy; HIV Infections - epidemiology; HIV patients; Human immunodeficiency virus; Humans; Infections; Infectious diseases; Iron; Iron deficiency anemia; Medical Subject Headings-MeSH; Meta-analysis; Mortality; Odds Ratio; Patients; Prevalence; Quality; Quality of Life; Sample Size; Statistical analysis; Studies; Systematic review; Viruses; Ethiopia; Prevalence; HIV; Anemia; Comorbidity; Iron status; Systematic review; Children; Human immunodeficiency virus; Epidemiology; Ethiopia; HAART; Meta-analysis
• DOI: 10.1186/s12879-019-4656-1
• ISSN: 1471-2334

Anemia is a common problem in HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) infected patients, and is associated with decreased functional capacity and quality of life. Ethiopia is one of the countries which has expanded highly active antiretroviral treatment (HAART) over the past years. The effect of HAART on anemia among HIV remains inconsistent and inconclusive, particularly in children. This study thus aimed to synthesize the prevalence of anemia among HIV infected Ethiopian children and its association with HAART initiation. MEDLINE/PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science and Google scholar were used to identify 12 eligible studies reporting an association between anemia and HIV using a priori set criteria. PRISMA guideline was used to systematically review and meta-analysis these studies. Details of sample size, magnitude of effect sizes, including odds ratio (OR) and standard errors were extracted. Random-effects model was used to calculate the pooled estimates using STATA/SE version-14. I and meta-bias statistics assessed heterogeneity and publication bias of the included studies. Sub-group analyses, based on study designs, were also carried out. In Ethiopia, the overall prevalence of anemia in HIV infected children was 22.3% (95% CI: 18.5-26.0%). The OR of anemia-HIV/AIDS comorbidity was 0.4 (95% CI, 0.2-0.5) in HAART initiated children as compared to non-initiated counterparts. Meta-bias and funnel plot detected no publication bias. On aggregate, anemia is a common comorbidity in pediatric HIV patients. HAART was significantly associated with a reduced anemia-HIV/AIDS comorbidity. Prompt start of HAART might help decreasing the prevalence of anemia and its subsequent complications.