Irritable Bowel Syndrome in Iran: SEPAHAN Systematic Review No. 1

Objectives: irritable bowel syndrome (ibs) is a common gastrointestinaldisorder. due to its high prevalence and absence of curative therapy,ibs has the potential to create tremendous burden on the healthcare system. herein, we systematically reviewed the published literatureto investigate the epidemiology of ibs in iran.methods: studies that were reviewed in this article were primarilyidentified through four online bibliographic databases includingpubmed, google scholar, iranmedex, and scientific information database.manual search of reference lists was carried out to identify anyadditional studies such as relevant abstracts and also recent reviewarticles which may have been missed. potentially related studies wereretrieved and the selection criteria were applied. eligible articles werereviewed.results: from 4176 studies identified, 18 eligible studies were included.it was reported that in iran, the prevalence of ibs was in therange of 1.1% to 25% and was more common in women. in addition,the difference in frequency of different age groups was minimal. therewas a minimal difference in ibs prevalence within different age groups.conclusions: in iran, the incidence of ibs was in the wide range.since there are not enough population-based studies, researchersshould focus on developing well-designed population-based studies todetermine the epidemiology of ibs in iran. moreover, cohort studiesshould be conducted in order to investigate the natural history of ibs.investigating the etiology of ibs and attempt to organize health promotionprograms are highly suggested.