the prevalence of obesity in iran in recent decade; a systematic review and meta-analysis study

background: there is a great deal of descriptive studies on obesity in iran, mostly assessed the prevalence and its relation­ship with various risk factors and chronic diseases. in order to obtain/give a better insight into the epidemiology of obesity in iran in recent years and assess its heterogeneity around the country, we reviewed systematically all available studies and ana­lyzed their findings using meta-analysis. methods: all published papers in iranian and international journals, final reports of research projects, papers in relevant con­gresses, proceeding books and dissertations of students were reviewed. those findings, which published between 1997 and 2007 and met eligible criteria, were entered in meta-analysis (random model). results: fifty eight eligible papers (out of 219) including 132864 individuals were entered into analysis. the overall preva­lence of obesity for adults (>18 yr) and children (<18y) was 21.5% (ci95% 17.4-25.6) and 5.5% (ci95% 4.5-6.4), respec­tively. the prevalence of obesity in boys and girls (<18y) was 5.3% (ci95% 4.1-6.4) and 4.8% (ci95% 4.0-5.7), respec­tively. it increased in both adult men and women to 13.7% (ci95% 10.9-16.7) and 27.3% (ci95% 21.3-33.4), respectively. meta regression indicated that only age explained a considerable proportion of the observed heterogeneity among women. conclusion: in overall, the risk of obesity was greater in women, but even in adults, the prevalence was less than that in devel­oped countries. the percentage of obesity was increased by aging, especially in women. there were large variations in the re­ported prevalence of obesity in iran; it is mainly because of the different in the distributions of age and sex among the sub­jects.