Obesity among Iranian primary school students: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Objective (s): Obesity is a major public health problem worldwide. This review was carried out to assess obesity among Iranian primary school students. Methods: All cross-sectional studies that conducted on prevalence of obesity in adolescents in Iran without any restrictions was examined. The search engines included national and international databases including: Magiran, SID, Iranmedex, Scopus and PubMed in August 2015. Stata software version 12 was used for analysis of data and to obtain a summary measure. Results: In all 25 papers had the inclusion criteria for the study. Studies showed that the prevalence of obesity in Iranian primary school students was 7.18 percent (95% CI: 5.63-8.73). The prevalence of obesity was higher in boys than girls (8.02% vs. 6.07 %). Conclusion: This information might help to implement interventions to prevent obesity among Iranian primary school students. It seems that implementing interventions that aim to improve lifestyle and dietary patterns of this age group range are essential.

Keywords

• prevalence
• obesity
• meta-analysis
• student
• primary school
• iran