Background: In East Africa, COVID-19 has impacted the lives of girls and women. COVID-19 control measures were considered as major factors of teenage pregnancy. It is essential to provide comprehensive evidence and to focus on the well-being of teenagers during COVID-19 and future emergency situation in East Africa. The present study aimed to explore the pooled prevalence and associated factors of teenage pregnancy during COVID-19 in East Africa. Methods: Systematic searches were conducted in PubMed, Google Scholar, and African journals online and included articles published from December 2019 to June 2024. The quality of eligible studies was assessing using Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. A DerSimonian–Laird random-effects meta-analysis was used to estimate the pooled effect size of the outcome measures with their 95% confidence interval. Stata version 14.0 (StataCorp, College Station, Texas) was used for statistical analysis. Results: A total of 4 studies reported the prevalence of teenage pregnancy during COVID-19 in East Africa is 37% (95% confidence interval: 0.07–66.70, I 2 = 99.4%, P = .000. The prevalence of teenage pregnancy during the COVID-19 pandemic in East Africa is not homogeneous across countries, publication years and sampling methods. In addition, key determinants contributing to the prevalence of teenage pregnancy are systematically summarized. Conclusion: The prevalence of teenage pregnancies in East Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased due to various factors such as disrupted access to sexual and reproductive health services, increased poverty, and decreased access to education. Proper and timely interventions to minimize the effects of public health and related crises on teenagers are vital.
Hasen et al. (Fri,) studied this question.