A systematic review of recent asthma symptom surveys in Iranian children.

Asthma is the most prevalent chronic disease in children. To quantify the national prevalence of asthma symptoms in Iranian children, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. After internet and hand searching for population-based prevalence estimates published from 1998 to 2003 from 142 articles, dissertations and reports of research projects, 19 of them were selected. All the selected studies on children had been performed by the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC) protocol. We analyzed the data using NCSS software. In the included 19 studies, 61,067 children in different age groups had been examined by the ISAAC protocol. The lowest prevalence of asthma symptoms was 2.7% in Kerman and the highest was 35.4% in Tehran (capital of Iran). Overall prevalence of asthma symptoms at a national level was estimated as 13.14% (95% CI: 9.97-16.30%). Based on this study, the prevalence of asthma symptoms in Iran is higher than that estimated in the international reports. This information can be used to help prioritize asthma prevention and control within the range of Iranian public health concerns.