The prevalence of hypertension in diabetic patients in Iran; a systematic review and meta-analysis

Context: Hypertension is one of the most important issues in advanced and developing countries and is prevalent in diabetic patients. The present study was aimed at estimating the prevalence of hypertension in diabetic patients in Iran through meta-analysis. Evidence Acquisitions: The search was carried out using authentic Persian and English keywords in national and international databases including IranMedex, SID, Magiran, IranDoc, Medlib, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane, Embase, Web of Science, Medline and Google Scholar search engine without any time limitation until 2017. Heterogeneity of studies was assessed using I2 indexes. Data were analyzed using STATA software version 11.1. Results: In 32 reviewed studies with a sample of 34714 subjects, the prevalence of hypertension in Iranian diabetic patients was 51% (95% CI, 43%-60%). The prevalence of hypertension was 55% in type I diabetics and 53% in type II diabetic patients. Metaregression showed that there was no significant relationship between the prevalence of hypertension in diabetic patients with the sample size and year of study. Conclusions: About half of the diabetic patients in Iran suffer from hypertension. Patients with type 1 diabetes suffer from hypertension 2% more than type 2 diabetes patients. The prevalence of hypertension in diabetic patients in Iran has not significantly decreased over the past years and diabetic patients in northern Iran are more likely to have hypertension than other parts of the country