Prevalence of Diabetic Neuropathy in Patients with Type 1 Diabetes in Iran: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Diabetic Neuropathy (DN) is one of the prevalent complications of Type 1 Diabetes (T1D), which reduces the patient's ability to maintain his/her balance by reducing proprioception.

In this meta-analysis, conducted by the use of PARISMA and SMART checklists, articles published on the prevalence of DN in T1D patients in Iran were included in the study. The search was carried out by two specialists in internal medicine who were well versed in the subject of search and meta-analysis articles; and the validity of the search was confirmed by a third person who had a specialist degree in pulmonary (internal medicine). After entering references into Endnote 8 software and removing duplicate articles, data extraction was performed and analysis was done using CMA3 software.

The prevalence of DN in 10 reviewed articles was 33.3% (confidence interval (CI) =23.5-44.7), and in 3 articles, mild and moderate DN status was reported, and the prevalence of mild DN was 32.6% (confidence interval (CI) = 19.1-49.7) and the average DN was equal to 6.8% (confidence interval (CI) = 2.6-16.5). Also, the prevalence of DN in people over 15 years old was reported as 30.9% (confidence interval (CI) = 15.9-51.5) and in people under 15 years old was 43.1% (confidence interval (CI) = 28.5-59.1).

It is suggested that further meta-analysis studies be conducted on the other complications of diabetes in these patients.