Alcohol consumption in Iran: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature

Issues: Alcohol production, marketing and consumption are illegal in Iran. This systematic review examines the lifetime and last 12-month prevalence of alcohol consumption among the general and young population in Iran.

Approach: We searched Web of Science, PubMed, Embase, Scopus and Iranian scientific databases (i.e. Scientific Information Database and Magiran) for relevant publications in English and Persian from inception to 12 May 2019. Following a random-effects meta-analysis, we estimated the pooled prevalence of alcohol consumption among the general population and young people (<30 years old). Meta-regression was used to identify potential sources of heterogeneity.

Key findings: Of the 2400 identified records, 62 met the inclusion criteria. The overall pooled prevalence of lifetime alcohol consumption among the general population and young people was 13.0% [95% confidence intervals (CI) 10.0, 16.0]. The overall pooled prevalence of last 12-month alcohol consumption was 12.0% (95% CI 7.0, 18.0) for the general population and 15.0% (95% CI 9.0, 22.0) for young people. The prevalence of alcohol consumption varied from 0.03% to 68.0% in different regions, 0.3% to 66.6% among males and 0.2% to 21.0% among females.

Implications: Our findings highlight the need for public health surveillance of alcohol use in Iran.

Conclusion: These estimates show that, on average, one in eight people in the general population have ever consumed alcohol in Iran, indicating that alcohol consumption is not an uncommon practice in the country.