Prevalence of Self-Reported Acute Gastroenteritis Potentially Associated with Foodborne Illness Among Children Aged 1–14 Years: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Foodborne illness is a public-health concern worldwide. The goal of this study was to find out how prevalent foodborne illness is in children and what factors are linked to it. From inception until March 29, 2022, we carefully searched the PubMed and Scopus databases for prospective research published in journals. The Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) checklist was used to evaluate the reporting quality of the included studies. Five studies had a STROBE score ≥14. The pooled prevalence of foodborne diseases among children aged 1-4 years was 7.5% (95% CI 3.4-11.6). Meanwhile the pooled prevalence of foodborne disease among children aged 5-14 years was 13.7% (95% CI 9.1-18.2). The prevalence of foodborne disease among the children aged 1-4 years by country was highest in Grenada (14.60%) and among the children aged 5-14 years by country was highest in Dominica (25.0%).We found high prevalence of foodborne diseases among children. Foodborne disease among children can be reduced in many situations with proper steps taken.