{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,30]],"date-time":"2026-10-30T02:07:18Z","timestamp":1793326038457,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,1]],"date-time":"2021-04-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1617235200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:sec id=\"sec001\">\n<jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where malaria transmission is stable, malaria infection in pregnancy adversely affects pregnant women, fetuses, and newborns and is often asymptomatic. So far, a plethora of primary studies have been carried out on asymptomatic malaria infection in pregnant women in SSA. Nevertheless, no meta-analysis estimated the burden of asymptomatic malaria infection in pregnant women in SSA, so this meta-analysis was carried out to bridge this gap.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec002\">\n<jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, and ProQuest were systematically searched for relevant studies published until 4 August 2020, and also the expansion of the search was performed by October 24, 2020. We assessed heterogeneity among included studies using I-squared statistics (I<jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>). Publication bias was assessed by visual inspection of the funnel plot and further quantitatively validated by Egger\u2019s and Begg\u2019s tests. The pooled prevalence and pooled odds ratio (OR) and their corresponding 95% Confidence Interval (CI) were estimated using the random-effects model in Stata 15 software.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec003\">\n<jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>For this meta-analysis, we included 35 eligible studies. The overall prevalence estimate of asymptomatic <jats:italic>Plasmodium<\/jats:italic> infection prevalence was 26.1%% (95%CI: 21\u201331.2%, I<jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup> = 99.0%). According to species-specific pooled prevalence estimate, <jats:italic>Plasmodium falciparum<\/jats:italic> was dominant species (22.1%, 95%CI: 17.1\u201327.2%, I<jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup> = 98.6%), followed by <jats:italic>Plasmodium vivax<\/jats:italic>, <jats:italic>Plasmodium malariae<\/jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Plasmodium ovale<\/jats:italic>, respectively, found to be 3% (95%CI: 0\u20135%, I<jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup> = 88.3%), 0.8% (95%CI: 0.3\u20130.13%, I<jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup> = 60.5%), and 0.2% (95%CI: -0.01\u20130.5%, I<jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup> = 31.5%). Asymptomatic malaria-infected pregnant women were 2.28 times more likely anemic (OR = 2.28, 95%CI: 1.66\u20133.13, I<jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup> = 56.3%) than in non-infected pregnant women. Asymptomatic malaria infection was 1.54 times higher (OR = 1.54, 95%CI: 1.28\u20131.85, I<jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup> = 11.5%) in primigravida women compared to multigravida women.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>\n<jats:sec id=\"sec004\">\n<jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n<jats:p>In SSA, asymptomatic malaria infection in pregnant women is prevalent, and it is associated with an increased likelihood of anemia compared to non-infected pregnant women. Thus, screening of asymptomatic pregnant women for malaria and anemia should be included as part of antenatal care.<\/jats:p>\n<\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0248245","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,1]],"date-time":"2021-04-01T18:31:53Z","timestamp":1617301913000},"page":"e0248245","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":66,"title":["A systematic review and meta-analysis of asymptomatic malaria infection in pregnant women in Sub-Saharan Africa: A challenge for malaria elimination efforts"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"16","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5873-0239","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Yonas","family":"Yimam","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mehdi","family":"Nateghpour","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mehdi","family":"Mohebali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8723-6432","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Mohammad Javad","family":"Abbaszadeh Afshar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,4,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"pone.0248245.ref001","unstructured":"World malaria report 2019. 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