Prevalence of Head Trauma in Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Context: 

Head trauma (HT) is one of the most important types of traumata that has a high prevalence and may occur in different age groups, ranging from infants to the elderly.

Considering the importance of the prevalence of all types of traumata, especially HT, this study was conducted to measure the prevalence of HT in Iran by systematic review and meta-analysis.

The present systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted according to the PARISMA checklist to assess the prevalence of HT in Iran. PICO approach was carried out with the inclusion criteria of the articles as follows, and the search was conducted by two researchers completely independently from October 1 to November 30, 2022. Analysis was done by CMA v.2.0 software and using a random model, funnel plot, and meta-regression analysis.

In the 22 reviewed articles, the time of publication of the articles was between 2008 and 2022, and the total sample size was equal to 99,306. Also, in relation to the method of conducting studies, two studies were conducted using a retrospective method, two articles were conducted using a prospective method, and other articles were conducted using a cross-sectional method. The results showed the overall HT prevalence was 26.2 (95% CI, 14.4 - 29.2) in Iran. Moreover, there was no relationship between the year of publication of articles (P = 0.96, Z-value = 0.05) and sample size (P = 0.41, Z-value = -0.82) with the prevalence of HT.

Considering the high prevalence of HT in Iran, it is necessary to carry out necessary preventive interventions in this field.