A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Prevalence of Methamphetamine Abuse in Iranian High School Students

Background and Aim: Abuse of drugs such as methamphetamine is one of the most important problems in high-school children and adolescents according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has mentioned it as a concerning event in the world. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to estimate the prevalence of methamphetamine abuse in Iranian students using the meta-analysis method on studies conducted in Iran. Materials and Methods: To select the studies, a systematic search was performed on leading databases, including ISI web of science, PubMed, Scopus, Embase, PsycINFO and PROSPERO with no language limits from their inception to 31 Jan 2018. Furthermore, local databases, including SID, Magiran, and IRANDOC were searched systematically using both Persian and English languages from their inception to 31 Jan 2018. Results: We found a total of 828 potentially relevant studies, of which 30 met our criteria, and 7 articles (7452 students, 3063 females and 4389 males) were included. The pooled prevalence of methamphetamine use in Iranian students was 0.016% (95% CI: 0.06-0.041, P=0.00). The heterogeneity was low (I(2) =44.41, d.f = 6), which shows that about 94.41 of the total observed variance was true variance between the studies. Conclusion: Although the prevalence of methamphetamine in high-school students is lower than in other drugs, a growing pattern in Iranian high-school students in recent years is a serious warning to authorities and families. Increasing families and students’ knowledge about the harmful effects of this drug can be an effective approach to reducing its prevalence in young people, especially high-school students.