The prevalence of depression among Iranian infertile couples: an update systematic review and meta-analysis

Depression is a common mental disorder. Infertility can lead to depression. The current systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted to estimate the pooled prevalence of depression among Iranian infertile couples. Seven electronic databases (Google Scholar, MagIran, SID, Science Direct, PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science) were searched, up to August 2019, for relevant published studies. The pooled prevalence of depression also pooled mean of depression score was determined using a random-effects model with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI). All analyses performed using Stata ver11 (Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA). The 0.05 was considered a significant level. Totally, 230 studies were retrieved and 31 studies included in the meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of depression among infertile couples was about 35.3% (95 % CI 24.1–46.5), and the prevalence of depression among females and males was 48.7% (95% CI 24.0–73.3) and 9% (95% CI 0% to 23.7%), respectively. Our findings suggest a high prevalence of depression in infertile couples. The results can highlight an important and growing mental disorder among infertile couples that may be overlooked.