Bloating in Iran: SEPAHAN Systematic Review No. 4

Objectives: bloating is a common and bothersome gastrointestinalsymptom. despite its high prevalence, associated costs, and effects onthe quality of life, very few studies have reported the epidemiology ofbloating in iran. through this systematic review, findings and limitationsof the current research will be discussed.methods: in march 2012, we searched pubmed, google scholar,scientific information database, iranmedex, and magiran to find articlesfor inclusion in the study. two of the authors screened the articleson the basis of titles and abstracts. the full manuscripts of thesepublications were then evaluated according to the predefined criteria.results: fifteen articles were included in the study, and data regardingthe prevalence of bloating were extracted. the studies depict a prevalenceof 1.5% to 8.8% for bloating in the iranian population. twostudies reported the prevalence of functional bloating to be 1.5% and10% according to the rome iii and rome ii criteria, respectively. femaleto male ratio remains ?1 for most of the studies criteria.conclusions: in iran, data on the prevalence of bloating are limited,and have mostly been gathered from a highly selective population. theresults of the present study advocate the necessity to perform furtherstudies on the general population, which may help health policy makersin the allocation of the appropriate resources.