Prevalence of Mental Health Problems Among Adolescents in Africa: An Umbrella Review–A Systematic Review of Systematic Reviews

BACKGROUND Systematic reviews with varying perspectives have been conducted on mental health problems that affect adolescents and young people in Africa. The majority of these reviews were conducted at the national or regional level. The objectives of this review were to determine the frequency of adolescents’ mental health problems in Africa and to evaluate the risk factors for mental health problems among adolescents in Africa. METHODS A systematic review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, and the search strategy process was employed to search multiple databases (MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus) and Google Scholar guided by the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI). MeSH terms were created to search for eligible articles and data extraction was managed by Endnote. Included systematic reviews were those that reported the prevalence of mental health problems among adolescents and youths aged 10–19 years in Africa, and data were analyzed using MedCalc. The search yielded 862 records, of which 261 were assessed for eligibility, 31 met the inclusion criteria, and 12 articles were selected. RESULTS The pooled prevalence of adolescents with mental health problems in Africa shows depression accounted for 37.8% ( 95% CI: 30.7 to 45.2, I2 = 99.84%), psychiatric disorders 24.5% (CI: 20.69 to 28.5, I2 = 99.63%), anxiety 29.96% (CI:21.5 to 39.2, I2 = 99.90%), suicide ideation 23.94%(CI:18.3 to 30.1, I2 = 99.92%), substance abuse disorders 31.2% (CI:13.7 to 52.0, I2 = 99.90%), ADHD 5.95% (CI: 4.2 to 8.1, I2 = 98.48%), emotional and behavioral problems 40.8%(CI: 40.5 to 41., I2 = 0.00%) and Conduct Disorders 15% (95% CI: 8; 22, I2 = 99.58%). The reported risk factors are socioeconomic and environmental, family related, community and social, individual, and health-related factors. CONCLUSION Adolescents in Africa have one or more mental health problems, and the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA ) region is facing a major crisis. The results have significant ramifications for African policy and practice since they show that mental health problems are a significant issue that impact the majority of adolescents throughout the continent and require agent interventions.