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

Dyspepsia is a highly prevalent gastrointestinal problem. The present study was carried out to assess the prevalence of dyspepsia in Iran.

The present study was registered at PROSPERO with the code CRD42019148610. It was carried out based on MOOSE and reporting was performed according to the PRISMA protocol. Systematic search of the literature was performed in July 2019 on international databases of PubMed/Medline, Web of Science (ISI), Cochrane Library, EBSCO, CINAHL, EMBASE, Scopus, Science Direct, and local databases as well as the Google Scholar search engine. Heterogeneity was evaluated using I2 and Chi-square tests. All analyses were done using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software.

Overall, 14 studies with a sample size of 54,118 subjects entered in this meta-analysis. The prevalence of dyspepsia in Iran was 14.6% (95% CI: 9.6–21.7). Large heterogeneity was detected among studies (I2=99.62%, P<0.001). The prevalence of dysmotility-like, ulcer-like, and unspecified dyspepsia was estimated to be 9.7% (95% CI: 4.9–18.4), 12.1% (95% CI: 5.2–25.7) and 17.0% (95% CI: 7.8–33.4), respectively. The prevalence of dyspepsia in Iranian men and women was found at 11.1% (95% CI: 6.3–18.8) and 17.8% (95% CI: 10.0–29.7), respectively.

The prevalence of dyspepsia in Iran is relatively high. However, it is lower than global estimates