Prevalence of premenstrual syndrome in Iran: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a common disorder characterized by physical, mental and behavioral changes in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle in the reproductive age women.

The present study aimed to determine the overall prevalence of PMS in Iran by a systematic review and meta-analysis study.

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched international databases included ISI Web of Knowledge, PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Google Scholar, and also local databases including Iranmedex, Scientific Information Database, and Magiran for articles in English and Persian language published up to September 2016. We carried out data analysis with Stata version 11. We examined heterogeneity in the results of studies through I² statistics and Chi-square based Q test. Also, we investigated the effects of potential heterogeneity factors in the prevalence of PMS by meta-regression.

We studied a total of 9147 reproductive-age women from 24 articles which entered to meta-analysis. Based on the result of random effect model, we estimated the overall prevalence of PMS 70.8% [95% CI: 63.8-77.7]. The results of subgroup analysis revealed that prevalence of PMS was 80.4% (95% CI; 66.9-93.9) among high school students, 68.9% (95% CI; 59.2-78.6) among university students, and 54.9% (95% CI; 51.6-58.2) in general population. Univariate meta-regression model showed that prevalence of PMS was decreased by increasing the age of subjects but this was not statistically significant (p=0.155).

Our finding showed that PMS was prevalent in Iranian reproductive age women especially among high school students. More epidemiological research for determining factors that affect PMS prevalence seems essential.