Prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Iranian patients with schizophrenia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Metabolic syndrome as a set of cardiovascular risk factors is highly prevalent among patients with schizophrenia. It can also lead to cardiovascular diseases and shorten lifespan. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to estimate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among Iranian patients with schizophrenia. Five national studies were retrived without any time limitation and reported in the present systematic review and meta-analysis. Data bases including Web of Science, Google Scholar, PubMed and Scopus were used to search and retrieve related articles. Keywords including “schizophrenia”, “metabolic syndrome”, “MetSyn” and “X syndrome”, and their combinations were used. Data were analyzed using the meta-analysis method and the random effects model. The heterogeneity of the studies was evaluated using the I2 index and data was analyzed using the STATA software version 12. The analysis of five selected articles with a sample size of 1589 people showed that the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in patients with schizophrenia was reported as 23.9% (95% CI: 14.8-33). The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in women and men was reported as 34% (95% C: 19-49) and 10.8% (95% CI: 2.9-18.7), respectively. According to the meta-regression analysis, no correlation was reported between the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and the mean age of patients (p = 0.607), year of publication of articles (p = 0.350), sample size (p = 0.392) and duration of disease (p = 0.607). Also, about one fourth of the patients with schizophrenia were suffering from metabolic syndrome. The identification of at-risk patients is necessary to control and treat metabolic syndrome.