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Published in: BMC Public Health 1/2019

Open Access 01-12-2019 | Obesity | Research article

The prevalence of overweight and obesity among Iranian military personnel: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Authors: Yahya Salimi, Maryam Taghdir, Mojtaba Sepandi, Ali-Akbar Karimi Zarchi

Published in: BMC Public Health | Issue 1/2019

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Abstract

Background

The overweight and obesity among military personnel, as an occupational group, beside the health issues, might affect their military performance. A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to estimate the pool prevalence of overweight and obesity among Iranian military personnel.

Methods

The national databases including Science Information Database, MagIran, and the following international databases; Web of Science, Medline via PubMed, and Scopus were searched, up to December 2017, for relevant published studies without time limitation.

Results

Totally,1431 studies were reterived and 10 studies included in meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of overweight and obesity were 41% (95%CI:26, 57%) and 13% (95%CI:10, 17%), respectively. In the subgroup analyses, a lower and higher prevalence of overweight was reported in the ground (12%) and Navy (69%) forces military, recpectively. For the obesity, the air forces had the lowest prevalence (11%) and the ground and Navy forces military had highest prevalence (15%). The prevalence of overweight and obesity were slightly higher in studies conducted after 2014.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest a high prevalence of overweight and obesity in the military personnel as a high-risk occupational group. Owing to the high observed heterogeneity among the included studies, large representative studies are needed to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the military personnel.
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Metadata
Title
The prevalence of overweight and obesity among Iranian military personnel: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Authors
Yahya Salimi
Maryam Taghdir
Mojtaba Sepandi
Ali-Akbar Karimi Zarchi
Publication date
01-12-2019
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Public Health / Issue 1/2019
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2458
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-6484-z

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