Hepatitis C virus among blood donors and general population in Middle East and North Africa: Meta-analyses and meta-regressions

Table 4 Subgroup analyses: Univariable and multivariable meta-regression models for HCV Ab prevalence among blood donors and the general population in Egypt, Pakistan, and rest of Middle East and North Africa countries

	Studies	Samples		Univariable analysis			Multivariable analysisb
	Total (n)	Total (n)	RR (95%CI)	P value	F P valuea	Variance explained R2 (%)	ARR (95%CI)	P value
Egypt
Subpopulations
Blood donors	116	1566669	1	-			1	-
The general population	147	110603	1.25 (1.00-1.57)	0.049	0.087	2.05	1.30 (1.07-1.59)	0.008
Year of data collection	263	1677272	0.94 (0.93-0.95)	< 0.001	< 0.001	24.48	0.94 (0.93-0.95)	< 0.001
Pakistan
Subpopulations
Blood donors	73	1797644	1	-			-	-
The general population	106	301814	2.52 (1.89-3.36)	< 0.001	< 0.001	19.03	-	-
Year of data collection	179	2099458	1.00 (0.98-1.03)	0.648	0.648	0.00	-	-
Rest of MENA countries
Subpopulations
Blood donors	497	43282660	1	-	-		1	-
The general population	274	1933768	1.80 (1.47-2.21)	< 0.001	< 0.001	5.44	1.73 (1.42-2.11)	< 0.001
Country/subregion
Afghanistan	46	749455	1	-	-		1	-
Fertile Crescent1	221	3678408	0.53 (0.35-0.81)	0.003			0.50 (0.33-0.75)	0.001
Gulf2	241	21114208	1.26 (0.83-1.91)	0.273			0.86 (0.56-1.30)	0.462
Horn of Africa3	49	77628	2.08 (1.22-3.54)	0.007			1.37 (0.81-2.32)	0.247
Iran	123	16073479	0.51 (0.33-0.81)	0.004			0.43 (0.28-0.67)	< 0.001
Maghreb4	91	3523250	1.04 (0.65-1.64)	0.883	< 0.001	11.48	0.79 (0.50-1.24)	0.298
Year of data collection	771	45216428	0.95 (0.94-0.96)	< 0.001	< 0.001	6.22	0.96 (0.95-0.98)	< 0.001

¹Countries include Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria.

²Countries include Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.

³Countries include Djibouti, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

⁴Countries include Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia.

^aVariables with a P value ≤ 0.2 were eligible for inclusion in the multivariable analysis. No multivariable analysis was conducted for Pakistan, as only one variable qualified for inclusion in the model.

^bThe adjusted R-squared was 27.35% for the multivariable model for Egypt and 17.92% for the multivariable model for rest of MENA countries. Ab: Antibody; ARR: Adjusted relative risk; CI: Confidence interval; RR: Relative risk.