Research Article Prevalence and Predictors of Pulmonary Tuberculosis among Prison Inmates in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Habtamu Belew Mera , 1 Fasil Wagnew, 2,3 Yibeltal Akelew , 1 Zigale Hibstu, 1 Sileshi Berihun, 4 Workineh Tamir, 5 Simegn Alemu , 6 Yonas Lamore , 7 Bewket Mesganaw, 1 Adane Adugna, 1 and Tefsa Birlew Tsegaye 6 1 Department of Medical Laboratory Science, College of Health Sciences, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos 269, Ethiopia 2 Department of Pediatrics Nursing, College of Health Sciences, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos 269, Ethiopia 3 National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH), College of Health and Medicine, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia 4 Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Injibara University, Injibara 40, Ethiopia 5 Department of Medical Laboratory Science, College of Health Sciences, Injibara University, Injibara 40, Ethiopia 6 Department of Public Health, College of Health Sciences, Debre Markos University, Debre Markos 269, Ethiopia 7 Department of Environmental Health Science, College of Health Sciences, Debre Markos University, Debre, Markos, 269, Ethiopia Correspondence should be addressed to Habtamu Belew Mera; habtamu1570@gmail.com Received 15 July 2022; Revised 29 October 2022; Accepted 3 April 2023; Published 22 May 2023 Academic Editor: Karl Drlica Copyright © 2023 Habtamu Belew Mera et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Introduction. Prisoners in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are at a high risk of tuberculosis (TB) infection due to overcrowding and poor ventilation. Consequently, TB is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in prison, and many inmates face a number of barriers to TB control and had limited information in the region. Thus, the aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to estimate the overall pooled prevalence of pulmonary TB and predictors among prison inmates in SSA. Methods. From 2006 to 2019, a systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted using various databases, including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus. The data were extracted in Microsoft Excel using a standardized data extraction format, and the analysis was carried out with STATA version 14. To detect heterogeneity across studies, the I 2 and the Cochrane Q test statistics were computed. To determine the overall prevalence of TB and predictors among prison populations, a random effect meta-analysis model was used. Results. Of the 3,479 retrieved articles, 37studies comprising 72,844 inmates met the inclusion criteria. The pooled prevalence of pulmonary TB among prison inmates in SSA was 7.74% (95% CI: 6.46-8.47). In the subgroup analysis, the highest prevalence was found in the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) (19.72%) followed by Zambia (11.68%) and then Ethiopia (9.22%). TB/HIV coinfection (OR 4.99 (95% CI: 2.60-9.58)), Body mass index (BMI < 18:5) (OR 3.62 (95% CI: 2.65- 6.49)), incarceration (OR 4.52 (95% CI: 2.31-5.68)), and previous TB exposure (OR 2.43 (95% CI: 1.61-3.56)) had higher odds of pulmonary TB among inmates. Conclusion. The prevalence of pulmonary TB among SSA prison inmates was found to be high as compared to total population. TB/HIV coinfection, BMI, incarceration duration, and TB exposure were all predictors with pulmonary tuberculosis in prison inmates. As a result, emphasizing early screening for prisoners at risk of pulmonary TB is an important point to achieving global TB commitments in resource-limited settings. 1. Background Tuberculosis (TB) is an airborne infectious disease mainly caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB), which is still a major public health issue affecting person of all ages [1]. Adults in their most productive years are primarily affected, which accounted 88% [2, 3]. Globally, an estimated 10 mil- lion people developed TB disease in 2019, and there are 1.2 Hindawi Tuberculosis Research and Treatment Volume 2023, Article ID 6226200, 13 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/6226200