The prevalence of depression in Iranian children: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Abstract Introduction The present study was conducted to evaluate the prevalence of depression in Iranian children. Method This meta-analysis was registered in PROSPERO with code (CRD42020216632) and performed based on the MOOSE protocol and PRISMA guidelines. Title and abstract of articles were searched without time limit until April 2020 in international databases PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Embase, Science Direct, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EBSCO, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and Iranian databases. Results In 34 studies with a sample size of 23,779 Iranian children, the prevalence of depression was estimated 42.3% (95%CI: 34.9-50.0). Prevalence of depression in girls in 20 studies with a sample size of 11170 was estimated 42.1% (95%CI: 32.7-52.1) and the prevalence of depression in males in 20 studies with a sample size of 4678 was estimated 29.6% (95%CI: 21.2-39.7). The odds ratio of female to male depression was 1.33 (95%CI: 1.07-1.65, P  Conclusion The results of the present meta-analysis showed that depression is common in Iranian children and is much higher than global estimates. These findings emphasize the importance of identifying and providing treatment to children who are most in need.