---
title: How common is PMS among women in Iran? | Niyora
description: Very common. Pooling many studies, about 7 in 10 reproductive-age women in Iran had PMS, with the rate highest among high school students.
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/prevalence-of-premenstrual-syndrome-in-iran-a-systematic-review-and-meta-2017/
---

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- How common is PMS among women in Iran?

Systematic review, 2017

# How common is PMS among women in Iran?

Very common. Pooling many studies, about 7 in 10 reproductive-age women in Iran had PMS, with the rate highest among high school students.

 Moderate study design

9147 reproductive-age women in Iran, from 24 combined studies

## What they did

Researchers combined results from 24 earlier studies on Iranian women, covering 9147 women in total, and used statistical pooling (meta-analysis) to estimate how many had PMS overall and in different groups.

## What they found

The overall estimated prevalence of PMS was 70.8% (95% CI: 63.8-77.7). It was 80.4% among high school students, 68.9% among university students, and 54.9% in the general population. PMS tended to be slightly less common in older women, but this trend was not statistically significant (p=0.155).

## What it means for you

PMS appears to affect the large majority of reproductive-age women in Iran, especially younger students, though this is based on combining different studies (not a single large survey) and the data are from Iran only, so results may not apply everywhere.

70.8%

Overall PMS prevalence

80.4%

Prevalence in high school students

54.9%

Prevalence in general population

## About the study

Original title Prevalence of premenstrual syndrome in Iran: A systematic review and meta-analysis Authors Ranjbaran M, Omani Samani R, Almasi-Hashiani A et al. Journal International journal of reproductive biomedicine Year 2017 Study design Systematic review What was tested None (prevalence review, no treatment tested) Open access Yes Read the paper [doi.org/10.29252/ijrm.15.11.679](https://doi.org/10.29252/ijrm.15.11.679) Original abstract

Background: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a common disorder characterized by physical, mental and behavioral changes in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle in the reproductive age women. Objective: The present study aimed to determine the overall prevalence of PMS in Iran by a systematic review and meta-analysis study. Materials and methods: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we searched international databases included ISI Web of Knowledge, PubMed/Medline, Scopus, Google Scholar, and also local databases including Iranmedex, Scientific Information Database, and Magiran for articles in English and Persian language published up to September 2016. We carried out data analysis with Stata version 11. We examined heterogeneity in the results of studies through I 2 statistics and Chi-square based Q test. Also, we investigated the effects of potential heterogeneity factors in the prevalence of PMS by meta-regression. Results: We studied a total of 9147 reproductive-age women from 24 articles which entered to meta-analysis. Based on the result of random effect model, we estimated the overall prevalence of PMS 70.8% [95% CI: 63.8-77.7]. The results of subgroup analysis revealed that prevalence of PMS was 80.4% (95% CI; 66.9-93.9) among high school students, 68.9% (95% CI; 59.2-78.6) among university students, and 54.9% (95% CI; 51.6-58.2) in general population. Univariate meta-regression model showed that prevalence of PMS was decreased by increasing the age of subjects but this was not statistically significant (p=0.155). Conclusion: Our finding showed that PMS was prevalent in Iranian reproductive age women especially among high school students. More epidemiological research for determining factors that affect PMS prevalence seems essential.

Reproduced under CC-BY.

## Topics

[Work and productivity](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-work/)[Students and academic performance](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-education/)[Adolescents and young people](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-adolescents/)

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