Background: Mortality of children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) is a devastating problem in Ethiopia. This study estimated the pooled case fatality ratio of SAM among children <5 y of age and its association with comorbidity.
Methods: An electronic search was carried out using the database of MEDLINE/PubMed through the HINARI Programme, Google Scholar and Google for grey literature. A random effects model was used to estimate the pooled case fatality ratio of SAM and the hazard ratio (HR) of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/tuberculosis (TB) comorbidity using Stata/SE version 14.
Results: A total of 13 studies were included in the meta-analysis. The overall case fatality ratio of SAM among children <5 y of age in Ethiopia was 11.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] 8.8-13.7) with the I2 heterogeneity test (I2=89.5%). Furthermore, the HR of SAM children was 3.4 (95% CI 1.91-6.06) in HIV and 2.08 (95% CI 1.2-3.61) in TB comorbidity as compared with their counterparts without comorbidity.
Conclusions: In the aggregate, the pooled case fatality ratio was unacceptably high in Ethiopia. The case fatality ratio of SAM children is higher in HIV and TB comorbidity. Therefore, escalation of the existing nutritional strategies and early case detection of comorbidity are strongly recommended to mitigate the case fatality ratio of SAM.