Meta-analysis of staphylococcal diarrhea in some developing African countries

Staphylococcal diarrhea is a common gastro-intestinal illness caused by poor water supply and unhygienic food preparation. Although, about 70% of diarrheal cases per year have been attributed to the consumption of contaminated foods, in Africa, few studies have reported the incidence of Staphylococcus-related diarrhea and the implicated virulence factors. We investigated the implications of common factors such as age of children, age of mothers, maternal level of education, gender of children, overall bacteria isolated, sanitary condition status and feeding type of mothers on the burden of staphylococcal diarrhea. A literature search was performed using Pubmed, Googlescholar, American society for microbiology (ASM) journals and other sources. The quality of studies was assessed. Adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CI) for the occurrence of Staphylococcus aureus amongst other causes were extracted. For each study, a multivariate logistic regression analysis of the adjusted odds ratio was performed to identify the risk factors on the burden of staphylococcal diarrhea. Six case-control studies were included in the meta-analysis. Quality of individual studies rages from 0.57-0.84 (median, 0.69). meta-analysis gave pooled odds ratios 3.27 (95% CI; 2.88-4.17). The results identified inadequate sanitary conditions and type of feeding as major risk factors.