title: Prevalence and patterns of congenital heart diseases in Africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol.
abstract: Congenital heart diseases (CHD) are common causes of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality among young children and adolescents living in Africa. Accurate epidemiological data are needed in order to evaluate and improve preventive strategies. This review aims to determine the prevalence of CHD and their main patterns in Africa.
  
  
  
  This systematic review and meta-analysis will include cross-sectional, case-control and cohort studies of populations residing inside African countries, which have reported the prevalence of CHD, confirmed by an echocardiographic examination and/or describing different patterns of these abnormalities in Africa. Relevant abstracts published without language restriction from 1 January 1986 to 31 December 2016 will be searched in PubMed, Exerpta Medica Database and online African journals as well as references of included articles and relevant reviews. Two review authors will independently screen, select studies, extract data and assess the risk of bias in each study. The study-specific estimates will be pooled through a random-effects meta-analysis model to obtain an overall summary estimate of the prevalence of CHD across studies. Clinical and statistical heterogeneity will be assessed, and we will pool studies judged to be clinically homogeneous. On the other hand, statistical heterogeneity will be evaluated by the χ2 test on Cochrane's Q statistic. Funnel-plots analysis and Egger's test will be used to detect publication bias. Results will be presented by geographic region (central, eastern, northern, southern and western Africa).
  
  
  
  The current study will be based on published data, and thus ethical approval is not required. This systematic review and meta-analysis is expected to serve as a base which could help in estimating and evaluating the burden of these abnormalities on the African continent. The final report of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
  
  
  
  PROSPERO CRD42016052880.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Specialties, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
authors.forename: Aurel T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Tankeu
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Centre Pasteur of Cameroon, Yaoundé, Cameroon.|Faculty of Medicine, University of Paris Sud XI, Le Kremlin Bicêtre, France.
authors.forename: Jean Joel R
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8018-6279
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Bigna
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1, Yaoundé, Cameroon.|Sickle Cell Disease Unit, Mother and Child Centre of the Chantal Biya Foundation, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
authors.forename: Jobert Richie N
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Nansseu
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: Leopold Ndemnge
authors.initials: LN
authors.lastname: Aminde
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Specialties, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Yaoundé 1, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
authors.forename: Celestin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Danwang
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Specialties, Faculty of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Yaoundé, Cameroon.
authors.forename: Mazou N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Temgoua
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Groote Schuur Hospital and University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Jean Jacques N
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Noubiap
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000151:congenital* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D012107:Research Design; D058028:Research Report; D000078202:Systematic Reviews as Topic; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic
keywords: Africa; Heart defects; cardiac malformation