Background and purpose: Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common endocrine complications in thalassemic patients. Several studies investigated the prevalence of diabetes in Iranian patients with thalassemia major and reported different results but no overall estimate was calculated. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to study the prevalence of diabetes in patients with thalassemia major in Iran.

Materials and methods: This review study was conducted by PRISMA checklist. Electronic databases including Magiran, Iranmedex, SID, Medlib, IranDoc, Scopus, Pubmed, Science direct, Cochrane, Web of Science, Springer, Online Library Wiley and Google Scholar were searched in chronological order without time limit, in January 2016, using relevant keywords. Two researchers independently performed article selection and data extraction. All studies meeting our inclusion criteria were investigated. Data analysis was done using random effect model in Stata Ver.11.1.

Results: Overall, 6380 patients were studied in 42 articles. Prevalence of diabetes in patients with thalassemia major in Iran was 9.5% (CI: 95%, 7.8-11.3). The minimum and maximum prevalence of diabetes were found in West (10.3%) and North of Iran (8.3%), respectively. The prevalence rate in male and female thalassemia major patients were 12.6% (CI: 95%, 6.1-19.1) and 10.8% (CI: 95%, 8.2-14.5), respectively.

Conclusion : Prevalence of diabetes in Iranian patients with thalassemia major was found to be high. Therefore, routine blood tests should be done every six-month for early diagnosis of diabetes in this population.