The purpose of this study was to determine the magnitude and determinants of urban household food insecurity in East Africa.
Seventeen studies (fifteen cross-sectional and two cohort) that enrolled 156 996 households. We used the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines to search electronic databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, CINAHL, African Journals OnLine, Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar; date of last search: 10 June 2020) for studies reporting the prevalence and associated factors of urban household food insecurity.
A total of 17 studies with 156 996 households from 8 countries were used for the analysis. The pooled prevalence of urban household food insecurity in East Africa was 60·91 % (95 % CI 47·72, 74·11; I 2 = 100 %; P < 0·001) where the highest (91 %) and lowest (36·5 %) was observed in Sudan and Burundi, respectively. Household head educational status (illiterate) (AOR = 2·53; 95 % CI 2·11, 2·95, I 2 = 90 %; P < 0·01), female as household head (AOR = 1·45; 95 % CI 1·16, 1·75; I 2 = 0·0 %; P = 0·993), large family size (AOR = 1·43; 95 % CI 1·09, 1·76, I 2 = 0·0 %; P = 0·863) and poorest wealth quantile (AOR = 3·95; 95 % CI 1·93, 5·98; I 2 = 57·2 %, P = 0·053) were factors which significantly increased odds of urban household food insecurity in East Africa.