Trends of Obesity in Iranian Adults from 1990s to late 2000s; a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Obesity is currently emerging as a global epidemic, affecting 10% of adult population worldwide. The primary objective of the current systematic review is to describe the trend of overall prevalence of obesity in Iranian women and menthrough a meta-analysis. We searched the medical literature published from 1990 to 2007 in Medline (PubMed), EMBASE database, and the Iranian digital library. All published reports of research projects, papers in relevant congresses, unpublished crude data analysis, proceedings, books and dissertations were reviewed. Data from eligible papers that fulfilled the qualification criteria entered meta-analysis (Random Model). Data from 209,166 individuals were analyzed. The overall prevalence of obesity in adults was 18.5% (95%CI: 15.1-21.8), respectively. The prevalence of obesity in men and women was 12.9% (95%CI: 10.9-14.9) and 26.2% (95%CI: 21.3-30.5), respectively. The trend of obesity was similar in both genders; women had almost a constantly higher risk of obesity than men during the recent two decades. In overall the risk of obesity was greater in women. The reported prevalence of obesity was less than the developed countries. Although, the trend has not been ascending in recent years, we may expect to observe a rapid rise in obesity prevalence in near future due to aging.