A total of forty-three articles were identified through database and library catalog search. Of the identified articles, about 23 articles were removed due to duplications. Then, by assessing the abstracts and full texts, four articles were removed because they failed to meet the eligibility criteria. Finally, 16 articles that scored seven and above on the JBI quality appraisal were included in the systematic review and meta-analysis. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flow diagram were used to present the systematic review process (Fig. 1).

PRISMA flow diagram of included studies for the systematic review and meta-analysis of intestinal parasite infection and associated factors among pregnant Women in East Africa, 2021

A total of 4881 study partcipantswere involved in this systematic review. All included studies were cross-sectional. The sample size ranges from a minimum of 153 which was conducted in Kenya [13] to a maximum of 980 which was conducted in Rwanda [14]. Of the included studies, twelve of them were conducted in Ethiopia, two conducted in Kenya, one conducted in Uganda, and one conducted in Rwanda (Table 1).

In this review, the highest prevalence of intestinal parasites was observed among pregnant women in Kenya (76.15 (71.92, 80.38), while the lowest 10.98 (7.69, 14.28) in Uganda. In this study, high heterogeneity was observed (I2 = 98.8 and P-value