Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com Introduction Congenital anomaly is a structural or functional anomaly that may occur during intrauterine life. The anomaly can be identifed prenatally, at birth or later in life. An approximate of 94% of severe congenital anomaly occurred in low and middle-income countries. 1 A birth of abnormal child is a stressful situation for mother as well as for the society. More than 8 million children are born each year with congenital abnormalities globally, out of these 3.3 million dice before the age of fve years while 3.2 million survivors suffer from severe mental or physical disability. Although it is a major global concern, the advancing technology and early antenatal diagnosis of birth defects has altered the trends congenital abnormalities. 2 Even if congenital anomaly cannot be linked to a specifc causes, some of the known causes or risk factors are single gene defects, chromosomal disorders, environmental chemicals, maternal infections such as rubella, maternal illnesses like diabetes mellitus (DM), iodine and folic acid defciency and exposure to medicinal and recreational drugs including alcohol, tobacco and radiation were revealed. 1 The interaction of genetic component with environmental factors in utero could lead to congenital disorders, while some birth defects are mainly secondary to environmental factors. Early identifcation and treatment of infections before and during pregnancy can avoid the congenital disorders resulting from such infections as syphilis and rubella. 3 In addition, taking family history of genetic diseases and counseling of parents could minimize the risks of birth disorders. 4 In Kenya, congenital anomaly contributed for 1/3 of all neonatal deaths following infections, birth asphyxia, and preterm births. 5 In Somalia, congenital anomalies attributed for 6.4% neonatal deaths, 6 and in Djibouti, congenital anomaly accounted for the 14 th top 25 years of life lost. 7 The proportion of perinatal deaths due to congenital anomaly was increasing as a result of reduction in mortality from other causes secondary to a gradual improvement in the management of prematurity, asphyxia and sepsis through tertiary care newborn units across the countries. Thus, birth defects in the coming decades are likely to emerge as a major cause of morbidity and mortality. 8 This review is designed with an aim to determine the prevalence of only structural congenital anomaly among the 11 eastern African countries including Madagascar. J Pediatr Neonatal Care. 2020;10(2):43‒50. 43 ©2020 Kassaw et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially. Proportion of structural congenital anomaly in eastern Africa; A systematic review and meta-analysis Volume 10 Issue 2 - 2020 Mesfn Wudu Kassaw, Ayele Mamo Abebe, Biruk Beletew Abate, Ayelign Mengesha Kassie, Alemu Birara Zemariam Department of nursing, Woldia University, Ethiopia Correspondence: Mesfn Wudu Kassaw, Department of nursing, College of health science, Woldia University, Ethiopia, Email Received: September 29, 2020 | Published: April 30, 2020 Abstract Introduction: Birth of abnormal child is a stressful situation for mothers and for the society. Globally, about 8 million children were born each year with congenital abnormalities. Out of this, 3.3 million children died before the age of fve years while 3.2 million survivors suffer from severe mental or physical disability. As it was a major global concern, the trends of congenital anomaly were also altered using advancing technology during antenatal care in diagnosing and treating the defects. Methods: The review has one objective, and the search strategy were performed based on the review question or objective. The search of articles was performed by 5 investigators. Electronic databases mainly PubMed and google scholar were used for published studies. Gray literatures like research and trials registers, thesis and dissertations catalog, and organizational reports were also scrutinized independently using the search logic grid by all authors. Ethics and dissemination: This review used published data, and the ethical approval was not applicable. This systematic review and meta-analysis were aimed to indicate the burden of structural congenital anomaly in eastern Africa for policy makers. The result also indicated for the region, and will be released online to make it available for all countries. Results: The pooled proportion of structural congenital anomaly in eastern Africa was 4.54 per 1000 with 95% CI of (4.23-4.85). Of the researches included in this review the maximum proportion of structural congenital anomaly was 6.08 per 1000 children and the minimum structural congenital anomaly was 3.97 per 1000 children. Conclusions: According to the fndings of this meta-analysis, the pooled proportion of structural congenital anomalies is high in relative to WHO’s worldwide structural congenital anomaly report. Congenital anomaly imposed huge fnancial, social and psychological costs on individuals, and heath care systems annually. Therefore, promotion of maternal health with an emphasis on ANC follow-up would be essential to decrease the prevalence of birth anomaly. Protocol registration: The protocol for this review has been published in the PROSPERO, International Prospective Register of systematic reviews at (http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/ PROSPERO with a protocol identifcation number of CRD42019123190. Keywords: structural congenital anomaly, eastern africa, proportion, meta-analysis Journal of Pediatrics and Neonatal Care Review Article Open Access