a meta analysis and systematic review of the unintended pregnancy prevalence in iran (1995-2008)

background: as the unintended pregnancy has certain maternal and neonatal consequences and knowing accurate prevalence can lead to useful planning for its diminishing; this study was carried out to determine the prevalence of unintended pregnancy in iran. methods: a systematic review and meta analysis study was applied. 33 articles were meta-analyzed and reviewed by two different groups. employing stata version 11, the variance and standard deviation of the selected articles were obtained. then the prevalence of unintended pregnancy were determined based on year, residency (city or village), sampling procedure and the definition of unintended pregnancy and its cumulative diagram was also drawn. besides, the statistical analysis such as igor, bag and meta-regression were also applied. results: the 33 selected papers were published during 1995-2008. the findings indicated that the overall estimation of unintended pregnancy prevalence in iran was 29.7%) urban 30%, rural 26.8 %(. the findings also demonstrated that the unintended pregnancy trend in rural areas was descending more than urban ones. conclusion: this survey showed that there was no change in the prevalence rate during the studied years.