Association between Food Insecurity and Weight Disorders of Children and Adolescents in Iranian Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: The link between food insecurity and weight disorders of children or adolescents remains controversial. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to clarify the association between food insecurity and weight disorders of children and adolescents in Iran. Methods: PubMed, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, Magiran, and SID databases were searched up to August 2020. Study selection, data extraction, and bias assessment in the included studies were performed by two reviewers independently. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated using a random effects model. Results: The pooled ORs of cross-sectional studies showed that food insecurity was not associated with the odds of underweight (OR 1.18, 95% CI 0.52, 2.70) with no evidence of publication bias but high heterogeneity between studies (I^2 = 80 %; P 0.05). Similarly, the pooled ORs demonstrated that there was no association between food insecurity and obesity in children and adolescents of Iranian population (OR 1.29, 95% CI 0.91, 1.82) with no evidence of publication bias and heterogeneity between the studies (I^2 = 0.0 %; P = 0.52). Conclusions: There was no association between food insecurity and underweight or obesity in children and adolescents of Iranian population.