prevalence of depression among iranian patients with beta-thalassemia major: a systematic review and meta-analysis

background: patients with beta-thalassemia (bt) are susceptible to psychological disorders such as depression. the present study was conducted to estimate the pooled prevalence of depression among patients with bt in iran. methods: domestic and international databases were searched for relevant articles published from 1991 until june 2019. we searched international databases such as scopus, isi, and embase; iranian databases such as sid, magiran, and irandoc; and google scholar and pubmed search engines. the mesh keywords used were “depression”, “mental health”, “depressive disorder”, “thalassemia”, “beta-thalassemia major”, “prevalence”, “epidemiology”, and “iran”. relevant cross-sectional or cohort studies were included in the analysis. cochran’s q test and the i2 index were used to assess heterogeneity. the pooled prevalence and its 95% confidence interval (ci) were calculated using “metaprop” commands in stata 14. in cases, where the i2 statistic was greater than 50%, the random-effects model was used. results: eighteen eligible studies were included. the pooled prevalence of depression was 42% (95% ci: 33% to 52%), whereas the pooled prevalence of mild, moderate, severe, and extremely severe depression was 16% (95% ci: 11% to 22%), 13% (95% ci: 9% to 18%), 13% (95% ci: 9% to 17%), and 3% (95% ci: 0% to 8%), respectively. the pooled prevalence of depression in moderate- and high-quality studies was 45% (95% ci: 29% to 61%), and 39% (95% ci: 27% to 51%), respectively. conclusion: the high prevalence of depression highlights the urgent need for the establishment of interventions for the prevention, early detection, and treatment of depression among iranian patients with bt.