The prevalence of allergic rhinitis in Iranian children: A systematic review and descriptive meta-analysis

Allergic rhinitis is a very common disorder that affects children. To determine the national prevalence of allergic rhinitis symptoms in Iranian children, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. We conducted a literature search by using the Google Scholar from 1992 until 2012. The search terms were included: Allergic rhinitis, ISAAC and Iran. All the selected studies on children were performed by the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood protocol. By following the criteria, we gathered 436 articles. The required information from each study includes the authors, date, city, number of children in age groups 6-7 and 13-14. The information was recorded on particularly designed sheets. The data were analyzed by STATA 11.In this study, we analyzed 13 studies. 20668 children were in 6-7 years age group and 22920 were in 13-14 years age group. The pooled prevalence of allergic rhinitis in children 6-7 years of age was 11.9% and in children aged 13-14 was 21.2%.The result shows that the prevalence of allergic rhinitis in Iranian children is high. This information can be used to help allergic rhinitis control.