Prevalence of depressive symptoms in patients with advanced schistosomiasis in China: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Advanced schistosomiasis is the most serious outcome of infection and has a negative impact on both physical fitness and mental health of patients, the latter of which has long been overlooked. Therefore, we performed this systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the overall prevalence of depressive symptoms, one of the most common mental problems, in patients with advanced schistosomiasis in China.

Methods: Six electronic databases were searched for studies reporting the prevalence of depressive symptoms in the targeted patients.