Global epidemiology of leprosy from 2010 to 2020: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the proportion of sex, type, grade 2 deformity and age

The objectives of this study were to explore global epidemiological characteristics of leprosy, and to provide reference for the construction of prevention strategies for leprosy. Computer retrieval of the study on the epidemiology of leprosy from 2010 to 2020 in Web of Science, PubMed, and SCOPUS databases were summarized. The included studies were assessed for the quality of the AHRQ; the proportions of the study indices were meta-analyzed with Stata 16.0. A random effects model was adopted to merge categories, including sex, type, grade 2 deformity (G2D) and age group for meta-analysis. The subgroup analysis used region as a stratification factor to analyze whether there were differences in the indicators. The meta-analysis included 30 studies totaling 11,353 cases. The global pooled proportion of male to female subjects with leprosy was 63% (95% CI 59%, 66%) to 37% (95% CI 34%, 41%), respectively. The pooled multibacillary proportion and paucibacillary proportion were 69% (95% CI 62%, 76%) and 31% (95% CI 24%, 38%), respectively. The pooled grade 2 deformity (G2D) proportion was 22% (95% CI 15%, 30%). Among age groups, the pooled children proportion was 11% (95% CI 8%, 13%), and the pooled adult proportion was 89% (95% CI 87%, 92%). The subgroup analysis indicated that epidemiological indicators varied from country to country. This study suggested that disparities existed between sex, type, grade 2 deformity (G2D) and age group characteristics of leprosy from country to country.