Prevalence of Urinary Tract Infection in Iranian Newborns with Jaundice: A Meta-Analysis

Jaundice is the most common clinical problem among newborns. It could be caused by different factors, including infections such as urinary tract infection (UTI). We investigated the prevalence of UTI in Iranian newborns with jaundice and prolonged jaundice in this study based on a larger sample of existing data.

We searched the databases of PubMed, Web of Sciences, Scopus, CNKI, SciELO, and Google Scholar for English articles, and a search was also done in Persian in Magiran and Scientific Information Database (SID) published until July 2021. Data analysis was performed by Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (CMA) version 2.0 software.

This study included 19 eligible articles out of approximately 240 retrieved articles. The prevalence of UTIs in neonates with jaundice was estimated by pooling the data from 7416 neonates with jaundice. Of those, 369 cases had UTI. Combined data revealed that the prevalence of UTI in neonates with jaundice was 5.4% (95% CI 0.032-0.089, P ≤ 0.001) and there was no publication bias.

The overall prevalence of UTI in Iranian newborns with jaundice was 5.4%. However, more studies with a large sample size are required for better results. Also our review showed a screening of UTI should be considered for infants with jaundice, especially prolonged jaundice.