Night blindness and associated factors among pregnant women in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Night blindness is a significant public health problem among pregnant women in Ethiopia. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to estimate the pooled prevalence of night blindness and its associated factors among pregnant women in Ethiopia.Methods: Studies were searched using electronic databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, and gray literature using Google scholar as well as manual search of reference list of previous studies to retrieve related articles. We used a total of Seven primary studies in our review. Quality of all eligible studies was checked using JBI critical appraisal assessment tool. Data extraction and analysis were performed using Microsoft excel-10 and STATA 17 software respectively. Heterogeneity and publication bias were checked using the I2statistic and Egger’s test, respectively. Meta-analysis was carried out using random-effects model.Results: The overall pooled prevalence of night blindness among pregnant women in Ethiopia was 19.32% (95% CI:12.61-26.04).Subgroup analysis revealed that high prevalence of night blindness found in the Amhara region which was 21.41% (95%CI:12.83-30.13),but lower prevalence found in the southern region which was 10%(95% CI:4.23-15.77) and Meta-analysis using two primary studies revealed that those night blinding among age 35 and above have 3.02 (95% CI:1.73-5.24) times higher risk of getting blind compared to those pregnant women age less than 25 years old.Conclusion: The overall pooled prevalence of night blindness among pregnant women in Ethiopia was 19.32%.Pregnant women age greater than 35 years were significantly affected by night blindness So, strengthening the multivitamin supplementation including vitamin A to reproductive age women is crucial and improving women’s married during teenage is an important intervention to tackle maternal night blindness.