The Prevalence of Dysmenorrhea in Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Context: Dysmenorrhea is the most common gynecological complaint in Iran but the true prevalence of it is not clear yet. This study is aimed to estimate the overall prevalence of dysmenorrhea in Iran. Evidence Acquisition: International and national electronic databases including PubMed, ISI, Ovid, Scopus, Science Direct, SID, MagIran and IranMedex were searched up to January 2016. All studies, in which the prevalence of dysmenorrhea in Iran had been reported, were included in this meta-analysis. Eligible studies were reviewed, and data was extracted onto a standard data sheet. A Meta-analysis was done by a random-effects model with a 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: Twenty-five studies were assessed involving an overall of 9,677 participants, of which 6,748 had primary dysmenorrhea and 280 had secondary dysmenorrhea. The overall prevalence of primary and secondary dysmenorrhea was 0.71 (95% CI: 0.65, 0.77) and 0.18 (95% CI: 0.03, 0.32), respectively. Conclusions: Primary dysmenorrhea is a common problem in Iran however, there are only a few studies regarding secondary dysmenorrhea prevalence. Moreover, there is a significant variation between the results of the studies on the primary dysmenorrhea prevalence. Therefore, further evidence-based data on national studies is needed to estimate the exact estimation of dysmenorrhea prevalence in Iran.