Uncontrolled hypertension among hypertensive patients in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction: Hypertension is a major global public health problem. It currently affects more than 1.4 billion people worldwide, projected to increase to 1.6 billion by 2025. Despite numerous primary studies have been conducted to determine the prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension and identify its associated factors among hypertensive patients in Sub-Saharan Africa, these studies presented inconsistent findings. Therefore, this review aimed to determine the pooled prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension and identify its associated factors. Methods: We have searched PubMed, Google Scholar, and Web of Science databases extensively for all relevant studies. A manual search of the reference lists of included studies was performed. A weighted inverse-variance random-effects model was used to compute the overall pooled prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension and the effect size of its associated factors. Variations across the included studies were checked using forest plot, funnel plot, I2 statistics, and Egger’s test. Results: A total of twenty-six primary studies with a sample size of 11,600 participants were included in the final meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of uncontrolled hypertension was 50.29% (95% CI: 41.88, 58.69; I2 = 98.98%; P