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The prevalence of obesity and overweight among Iranian population: an umbrella systematic review and meta-analysis
樱花视频 volume听24, Article听number:听3377 (2024)
Abstract
Background
The present umbrella systematic reviews and meta-analyses aim to determine the comprehensive prevalence of obesity and overweight across different age subgroups in Iran.
Methods
We conducted a comprehensive search across many databases, including Science Direct, Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, and Google Scholar, to retrieve papers published until November 2023. The meta-analyses included in this study examined the prevalence of obesity and overweight in Iran. The current umbrella meta-analysis finally contained 24 meta-analyses. We evaluated the scientific reliability of the studies using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR2).
Results
The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity among the Iranian population was 18.38% (95% CI: 10.267, 26.496) and 10.91% (95% CI: 9.654, 12.177), respectively. The overall obesity prevalence in males was 9.93 (95%CI: 8.483, 11.388), and in females was 9.67% (95%CI: 8.317, 11.033). The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents was 12.43% (95% CI: 10.184, 14.683) and 6.51% (95% CI: 5.866, 7.157), and in adults, it was 27.39% (95% CI: 14.878, 39.914) and 17.20% (95% CI: 13.483, 20.919), respectively. Male children and adolescents had a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity than females, but adult males had a lower prevalence than females.
Conclusion
This study presents the trend of obesity and overweight among the Iranian population. Since the trend of increasing overweight and obesity is alarming, policymakers and healthcare providers at the national and regional levels should design and implement preventive programs and interventions.
Introduction
High body mass index (BMI) is now widely recognized as a global epidemic, and its growing impact is a major health concern in both industrialized and developing countries [1, 2]. According to research, obesity is the most serious of the four major global risk factors that are considered public health problems [3]. 鈥淕lobesity鈥 refers to the worldwide increase in obesity rates [4]. In fact, obesity stands out as the most significant nutrition-related disorder and the most important public health issue characterized by the accumulation of excessive and abnormal values of body fat, leading to adverse health outcomes [5]. Obesity is associated with chronic and life-threatening medical disorders, including metabolic diseases, cardiovascular disease (CVDs), osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, depression, and certain types of cancer and their comorbidities [6]. Concurrently with the increasing prevalence of obesity among adults, there is also a worrisome surge in obesity rates in children. This tendency presents a substantial threat to the well-being of the younger generation and has ramifications for the future of nations, especially in developing countries [7].
A multitude of factors can contribute to obesity. These include hormonal, genetic, and metabolic factors such as leptin, as well as socio-economic factors, dietary habits, particularly the consumption of excessive calories and unhealthy carbohydrates. Moreover, a sedentary lifestyle, urbanization, and industrialization of societies can also play significant roles [8]. Obesity not only has detrimental effects on people鈥檚 health but also imposes a financial burden on individuals and society. According to a report published in 2023 by the World Obesity Federation, if prevention and treatment efforts fail to improve, it could lead to an economic impact totaling US$4.32 trillion by 2035, representing nearly 3% of global GDP [9]. Furthermore, obesity causes 3256.0 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and 109.5 age-standardized deaths per 100,000 people [10].
An analysis of global statistics revealed a rise in the occurrence of obesity and overweight among children and adolescents. Nevertheless, in recent years, this trend has either steadied or begun to decline in certain nations [11]. Among six regions鈥擜frica, the Americas, the Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Western Pacific鈥攖he highest obesity rates are observed in the Americas and Europe. In the Americas, obesity prevalence surged from 6.8% in 1980 to 22.4% in 2019, while in Europe, it rose from 8.4% to 20% during the same period. In the Eastern Mediterranean, obesity increased from 6.4% to 17.4%, and in Africa, from 3.8% to 10.9%. The West Pacific, with the lowest initial obesity prevalence at 0.9% in 1980, saw a fivefold increase to 5% by 2019. Similarly, the Southeast Asian region, starting at 0.9% in 1980, experienced a larger jump to 7.9% by 2019 [12]. In Iran, a developing country in the Middle East, the estimated prevalence of obesity stands at 20.1% [13]. Indeed, determining the prevalence of obesity is a fundamental component of effectively planning healthcare strategies and policies to address this issue and its associated comorbidities [14].
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have recently been published on the prevalence of obesity in the Iranian population across different age groups [7, 13, 15]. To the best of our knowledge, there is currently a lack of epidemiological studies providing an overall comprehensive prevalence among different age subgroups. Therefore, the aim of the present umbrella systematic reviews and meta-analyses is to ascertain the extensive prevalence of obesity and overweight across various age subgroups.
Materials and methods
Search strategy and data sources
The present study utilized the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) format in conducting a comprehensive umbrella systematic review and meta-analysis [16] (Supplementary Table听1). This study was approved by Research Vice Chancellery of Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (Ethics Code: IR.IUMS.REC.1402.769). PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Web of Science search engines were searched for all systematic reviews and meta-analyses of obesity and overweight in Iran published until November 2023. The following search terms were used in this study: obesity OR overweight OR 鈥渂ody mass index鈥 OR weight OR BMI OR obes* AND prevalence OR epidemiology OR state OR health status AND Iran OR Persia OR Iranian OR Persian.
Two authors independently conducted the literature search, and any discrepancies were resolved through consensus. Additionally, a manual search was conducted to identify additional eligible studies by examining the 鈥渃ited by,鈥 鈥渞elated articles,鈥 and reference lists of the included studies. Supplementary Table听2 describes the search strategy.
Supplementary Table听3 show the overlap between primary studies across included meta-analyses.
Study screening and selection
The PICO criteria will be utilized to establish the keywords and evaluate the articles acquired from databases (Table听1). It is characterized as CoCoPop, which incorporates the investigated Condition, studied Context, and studied Population for the current prevalence study [17]. The search was conducted without any limitations or restrictions throughout the whole publishing time. The present analysis considered all English and Farsi publications conducted in Iran until 2023 as eligible for inclusion. To gain insight into the current obesity and overweight situation in the country, no time limit or other exclusion criteria was applied. The inclusion criteria included each meta-analysis reporting obesity and overweight prevalence in children, adolescents, and adults in Iran with effect sizes (ES) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs). Screening of all publications based on eligibility criteria was performed independently by two authors (AD and RMG). In the first step, all titles and abstracts entered in Endnote were screened. A standard form was created in an Excel spreadsheet to extract and enter data from the included studies efficiently. The following data were extracted: first author, year of publication, study population, number of participants, gender, number of studies included in the meta-analysis, study type, criteria for overweight and obesity, effect size, and 95% CIs.
Quality assessment
We evaluated each included study using the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR2) [18] method. This 16-question validated tool assesses each study鈥檚 pooling process and findings. Each question has four options: yes, partial yes, no, and no meta-analysis. The total score is then calculated, and each study is rated as high, moderate, low, or very poor quality. The GRADE approach [19] was used to assess the study鈥檚 strength and overall quality in accordance with Cochrane criteria. The GRADE technique evaluates five risk factors: bias, consistency, directness, accuracy, and publication bias. Finally, the quality is rated. The quality level will decrease if any of the aforementioned risk factors are disregarded. Furthermore, we classified evidence of outcomes into four categories according to the Credibility Assessment criteria: class I (convincing evidence), class II (highly suggestive evidence), class III (suggestive evidence), class IV (weak evidence), and NS (non-significant) [20, 21].
Data synthesis
The current study employed random effects models using restricted maximum likelihood approaches to assess the combined ES and 95% CI. Also, heterogeneity was detected through the I2 statistic and the Cochrane鈥檚 Q test. Significant heterogeneity among studies was defined by I2鈥>鈥50% or p鈥<鈥0.1 for the Q test [22]. In order to identify the sources of variation, we conducted a subgroup analysis based on the number of studies, including the year in which the data was collected and the gender of the participants. Sensitivity analysis was employed to determine the impact of removing a particular study on the overall effect size (ES). Formal Egger鈥檚 and Begg鈥檚 tests, together with visual inspection of funnel plots, were employed to evaluate the influence of studies with a minimum of 10 studies or fewer than 10 studies, respectively [23,24,25]. The 鈥渢rim-and-fill鈥 method was utilized in this work to quantify the asymmetries resulting from the small study effect precisely. A P-value below 0.05 was deemed significant. STATA software version 17.0 (Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA) was used to perform all statistical analyses.
Results
Literature search
Initially, 384 articles were obtained by searching the electronic databases [Scopus (n鈥=鈥174), Web of Sciences (n鈥=鈥103), PubMed (n鈥=鈥47), and Google Scholar (n鈥=鈥60)]. In the second step, 98 duplicate articles were removed, and two independent authors screened the title and abstracts of the remaining 286 articles. Among those, the full text of 35 articles was evaluated, and 11 articles were removed because they lacked the required information to be included in the analysis. Finally, 24 meta-analyses were included in the current umbrella meta-analysis [7, 8, 13, 15, 26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45]. Figure听1 indicates the PRISMA flow diagram of screening and selection of the studies.
Study characteristics
The features of the eligible articles for the current meta-analysis are shown in Table听2. All the included research was published between 2009 and 2023. The number of primary studies involved in the included meta-analysis ranged from 6 to 193. The number of participants in the included studies ranged from 4,434 to 3,845,768. A total of 15,074,657 subjects of different age groups were involved in this study. Overweight and obesity were defined based on BMI for adults and International听Obesity听Task Force (IOTF), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for children and adolescents.
Methodological quality of included studies
Table 3 displays the assessment outcomes of each study鈥檚 methodology using the AMSTAR2 tool [46]. Out of the total number of publications (n鈥=鈥24), the majority were of intermediate quality, with four being of good quality and the remaining papers being of low quality. As a result, the overall quality was average. Similarly, when utilizing the GRADE and Credibility Assessment tool, all qualitative impacts were rated as moderate or poor and III or IV evidence class, respectively (Table听4).
The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity
The results of 14 meta-analyses comprising 22 Effect Sizes (ESs) indicated that the prevalence of overall overweight among the Iranian population was 18.38% (95% CI: 10.267, 26.496) (Fig.听2), with significantly high heterogeneity among the studies (I2鈥=鈥100%, p鈥<鈥0.001). Sub-group analysis revealed that the prevalence of overweight was higher in the meta-analyses, which included鈥夆墺鈥50 studies (ES鈥=鈥20.48%, 95% CI: 6.053, 34.923) and collected data after 2015 (ES鈥=鈥26.12%, 95% CI: 9.615, 42.627). There wasn鈥檛 a significant publication bias based on Egger鈥檚 test (p鈥=鈥0.716), and the funnel plot also approves this result (Suppl. Figure听1).
The results of combining 34 ESs of 21 meta-analyses demonstrated that the overall prevalence of obesity was 10.91% (95% CI: 9.654, 12.177) (Fig.听3). There was a high heterogeneity among the studies (I2鈥=鈥99.2%, p鈥<鈥0.001). The overall obesity prevalence in males was 9.93 (95% CI: 8.483, 11.388), and in females was 9.67% (95% CI: 8.317, 11.033). According to subgroup analysis (Table听5), the prevalence of obesity was higher in studies that collected data after 2015 (ES鈥=鈥13.778%, 95% CI: 9.803, 17.753), with a high heterogenicity (I2鈥=鈥99.4%, p鈥=鈥0.000) among the studies. The Egger鈥檚 tests indicated a small study effect (p鈥=鈥0.001), and an asymmetry was also observed in the funnel plot. The Trim-and-fill method didn鈥檛 change this result (Suppl. Figure听2).
Prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents
The pooled results of 10 meta-analyses, including 17 ESs, demonstrated that the prevalence of overweight among children and adolescents was 12.43% (95% CI: 10.184, 14.683) (Fig.听4). There was considerable heterogeneity among the studies (I2鈥=鈥99.5%, p鈥=鈥0.000). The prevalence of overweight in males (ES鈥=鈥15.792, 95% CI: 12.949, 18.634) was higher than in females (ES鈥=鈥17.57%, 95% CI: 14.714, 20.444), with a high heterogeneity among the studies. Based on the sub-group test, the prevalence of overweight was higher in the studies that collected data after 2015 (ES鈥=鈥12.19%, 95% CI: 11.134, 13.258) with a relatively high heterogenicity (I2鈥=鈥62.5%, p鈥=鈥0.046) among the studies. Egger鈥檚 tests indicated a publication bias (p鈥=鈥0.005), and the funnel plot also showed an asymmetry to the right. The trim-and-fill technique was used in 19 studies, and two imputed ESs reduced the overweight prevalence (ES鈥=鈥11.83%, 95% CI: 10.035, 13.636) and the asymmetry of the funnel plot (Suppl. Figure听3).
Combining the findings of 14 meta-analyses comprising 21 ESs indicated that the prevalence of obesity among Iranian children and adolescents was 6.51% (95% CI: 5.866, 7.157) with high heterogeneity (I2鈥=鈥96.5%, p鈥=鈥0.000) among the studies (Fig.听5). The prevalence of obesity in males was higher (ES鈥=鈥8.48%, 95% CI: 7.207, 9.762) than in females (ES鈥=鈥5.92%, 95% CI, 5.053, 6.803). Moreover, sub-group analysis based on the year of data collection revealed that the prevalence of obesity was higher in the studies that collected data after 2015 (ES鈥=鈥10.48%, 95% CI: 8.323, 12.645), with high heterogeneity (I2鈥=鈥92.8%, p鈥=鈥0.000) among the studies. There is a significant publication bias based on Egger鈥檚 tests (p鈥=鈥0.000), and an asymmetry was also observed to the right of the funnel plot. The trim-and-fill method did not change the results (Suppl. Figure听4).
Prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults
The combined 11 ESs of 8 meta-analyses demonstrated that the prevalence of overweight was 27.39% (95% CI: 14.878, 39.914) among Iranian adults (Fig.听6), with considerable heterogeneity among the studies (I2鈥=鈥99.8%, p鈥=鈥0.000). Upon sub-group analyses, the prevalence of overweight was higher in the meta-analyses that included鈥夆墺鈥50 studies (ES鈥=鈥28.70%, 95% CI: 9.608, 47.806), and their data collection year was after 2015 (ES鈥=鈥34.61%, 95% CI: 24.891, 44.341). There wasn鈥檛 a significant publication bias based on the results of Egger鈥檚 test (p鈥=鈥0.079). However, there was an asymmetry to the left of the funnel plot that, by the trim-and-fill method, this result didn鈥檛 change (Suppl. Figure听5).
The pooled results of 12 meta-analyses comprising 18 ESs displayed that the prevalence of obesity among adults was 17.20% (95% CI: 13.483, 20.919) (Fig.听7). There was significant heterogeneity among the studies (I2鈥=鈥99.2%, p鈥=鈥0.000). The prevalence of obesity among male adults was lower (ES鈥=鈥12.72%, 95% CI: 10.105, 15.339) than in females (ES鈥=鈥18.632, 95% CI: 11.752, 25.513). According to subgroup analysis, the prevalence of obesity in the studies with a year of data collection鈥夆墹鈥2015 (ES鈥=鈥18.465%, 95% CI: 14.007, 22.923) was higher than above 2015 with a high heterogenicity (I2鈥=鈥96.8%, p鈥=鈥0.000) (Table听5). The Egger鈥檚 tests indicated no small study effect among the studies (p鈥=鈥0.189). However, there was an asymmetry to the right of the funnel plot. As a result, the trim-and-fill method was applied with 21 ESs (three imputed), which decreased the prevalence of obesity among adults [ES: 15.571, 95% CI (12.288, 18.854)] (Suppl. Figure听6).
Discussion
The overall prevalence of overweight and obesity among the Iranian population was 18.38% and 10.91%, respectively. The overall obesity prevalence was 9.93% in males and 9.67% in females. The prevalence of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents was 12.43% and 6.51%, and in adults, it was 27.39% and 17.20%, respectively. Male children and adolescents had a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity than females, but male adults had a lower prevalence of obesity than females.
The STEPs survey in 2011 demonstrated that, in total, 22.3% of Iranian adults aged鈥夆墺鈥15听years were obese, with 14% being males and 27.7% being females [47]. In 2014, the age-standardized prevalence of obesity in Iran was estimated at 10.8% in males and 14.9% in females [1]. In 2016, the national prevalence rates of obesity and overweight/obesity among Iranian adults were 22.7% (22.2鈥23.2) and 59.3% (58.7鈥59.9), respectively. Childhood obesity will continue into adulthood, and studies have proven that more than 69% of children aged 6 to 10 are obese in adulthood. According to the published reports of the WHO and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) IV, about 16% and 30% of children are overweight or at risk of being overweight, respectively [48, 49]. The WHO Regional Office for Europe established the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative (COSI) to observe changes in overweight and obesity in school-aged children in 2007 [11, 50]. The prevalence of childhood obesity in the oldest study was 11.7% in the UK, 16.9% in the United States, 11.3% in China, 1.4% in Greece, 1.6% in Turkey, 13.7% in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and 1% in Indian children [51,52,53,54,55,56,57]. In other studies, this prevalence in Cyprus was 8.1%, in North Korea it was 9.7%, and in Spain it was 8.5% [58,59,60].
Body weight is influenced by a multifaceted and interrelated combination of factors, including biological factors (such as psychological factors, hormones, genetics, and epigenetics), social factors (such as education, employment status, income, and access to healthcare), food industry factors (such as food marketing and lobbying), access to physical activity opportunities, and various other factors [61, 62]. It seems that one of the causes of the prevalence and risk of overweight and obesity, especially in childhood, is the increase in social welfare and the industrialization of countries [63]. Growing urbanization and globalization may also induce a shift in the overweight and obesity trend because many kids and teenagers grow up in settings that promote weight gain and obesity. For example, today, people are exposed to cheap and easily available highly processed foods, which are often energy-dense and nutrient-poor [64, 65]. In addition, another reason is that opportunities for physical activity, especially active transportation, may have decreased in recent decades. A school-based study in 146 countries found that insufficient physical activity decreased among adolescent boys but showed no change among adolescent girls [66,67,68]. In the meantime, the use and exposure of today鈥檚 generation to sedentary behaviors such as watching TV, long-term use of electronic devices, etc., have increased. The alteration in food type, excessive portions, availability, and reduction in active transportation would have caused an energy imbalance [67, 69]. Lifestyle changes, especially dietary habits, insufficient physical activity, and increasing digital technology, lead to an increasing prevalence of obesity in rural and urban environments. Some ethnic factors, such as genetics, socioeconomic status, and dietary patterns, can also contribute to obesity [8, 70, 71]. A sedentary life and increased consumption of inappropriate high-calorie foods are the most obvious causes of obesity [72]. On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic led to people being confined to their homes, and there was a ban on participating in sports or social activities. However, the pandemic resulted in a decrease in physical activity and an increase in the intake of unhealthy food, leading to a rise in sedentary behavior and higher levels of anxiety. Consequently, there has been an increase in overweight and obesity rates [73,74,75,76,77]. A study on 43,660 Iranian students showed that during the COVID-19 epidemic, half of the participants were overweight, and most did not have regular physical activity during the pandemic [78]. A systematic review study showed that children watch television for between 1.5 and 3.5听h per day. Exposure to television food advertisements is associated with weight gain and obesity [79]. It has also been shown that in Iran, family history of obesity, early marriage, parity, old age, low physical activity, and education are factors of obesity, especially central obesity in the urban population [80]. Socioeconomic factors also have a significant effect on weight, especially in teenagers. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that in populations with a low socioeconomic status, the diet primarily consists of a high intake of carbohydrates, which are more readily accessible in their surroundings [81]. In addition, lack of sleep and sleep disorders may lead to hormonal changes, unhealthy eating patterns such as increased consumption of foods with a high glycemic index, and reduced physical activity [81, 82].
The prevalence of obesity and overweight is increasing in Iran, causing health and socioeconomic problems. Studying obesity and overweight and having access to comprehensive and accurate data on this issue is necessary to assess public health, determine appropriate and relevant health policies, and design and implement preventive measures against obesity.
Strengths and limitations
Considering the need to collect evidence on the prevalence of obesity and overweight in developing countries, which is needed for evidence-based policy making, and the lack of information and large-scale cohort studies in these countries, this umbrella systematic review was designed for Iran in order to obtain a comprehensive summary from the existing studies. This umbrella systematic review and meta-analysis investigated obesity and overweight prevalence in children, adolescents, and adults of both genders. Focusing the current study on Iran can be considered a limitation. The current study protocol was not registered in Prospero. Moreover, the cross-sectional designs of every meta-analysis in our study limited our review because of their observational nature. This is because cross-sectional observational studies cannot describe the cause-and-effect relationship. Also, the number of studies in different geographical regions of Iran was very small. Also, studies to investigate the prevalence of obesity in special conditions, such as pregnancy, are limited. The weight of studies included multiple times in distinct meta-analyses was increased due to the overlap of some studies among meta-analyses. This was one of our umbrella meta-analysis鈥檚 major and unavoidable limitations, which may affect the overall result and confound the findings. Any interpretation should consider this limitation since we could not听completely rule out the impact of various original study inclusions. The high heterogeneity of our results can be acknowledged as a limitation for their interpretation, too.
Conclusion
This survey is the first of its kind in the Middle East, and it shows that the increasing trend of obesity and overweight among Iranians is alarming. Due to the growing prevalence of obesity and overweight in the Iranian population, health policymakers should plan in the field of education and also take effective measures in terms of periodic screening. This study, which calculates and combines the results of all studies, provides research evidence about the trend of obesity and overweight among the Iranian population. Since the increasing trend of overweight and obesity is alarming, these studies are necessary to provide information to policymakers and healthcare providers at the national and regional levels so that preventive programs and interventions can be designed and performed.
Data availability
Data is provided within the manuscript or supplementary information files.
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A.D. and R.MG. conducted the search and data extraction, and A.D. and MMN screened the studies. A.D., MH.A., and SM.TJ. drafted the manuscript; A.N., A.P., F.S. and F.MN commented on subsequent revisions. All authors read and approved the final content.
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This study was approved by Research Vice Chancellery of Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran (Ethics Code: IR.IUMS.REC.1402.769). As the present study is an umbrella systematic review and meta-analysis, the consent to participate is not applicable.
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Dehghani, A., Molani-Gol, R., Mohammadi-Narab, M. et al. The prevalence of obesity and overweight among Iranian population: an umbrella systematic review and meta-analysis. 樱花视频 24, 3377 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-20860-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-20860-8