en Pediatric Pediatric Original Research Original Research <p style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Background:</strong> The prevalence of asthma and allergy has increased during the last decades, especially in children. However, little is<br> known about it in the Middle East region. This systematic review is aimed to estimate the prevalence of asthma among the Middle<br> Eastern children.<br> <strong>Methods: </strong>Local and international scientific databases including SID, Iranmedex, Medline and Science Direct were systematically<br> searched for relevant keywords including; asthma, prevalence, children, International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood<br> (ISACC) and the names of Middle Eastern countries for the period of 1996-2011. Papers in Persian and English which met the defined<br> criteria were included into the study. Bibliographies of the extracted articles were also searched. After extraction of data, heterogeneity<br> between studies and publication bias were measured using Egger&#39;s-test. Effect size was pooled by the random-effect model. Since significant<br> heterogeneity was found between studies, univariate meta-regression analyses were done to assess the association of variables<br> with the overall results.<br> <strong>Results:</strong> Fifty studies in the Middle East examined the prevalence of asthma and allergy in children under the age of 18 years according<br> to the ISAAC criteria and were included. A total number of 289,717 children were examined in the included studies and the prevalence<br> varied from 0.7 % in Isfahan to 22.3 % in Bagdad. The total prevalence of diagnosed asthma was calculated 7.53 % (95% Cl:<br> 6.38-8.75). Prevalence of asthma in the 13-14 years age group was 7.57% (95% Cl: 5.78-9.29) and in 6-7 years age group was 7.43%<br> (95% Cl: 5.75-9.10). The prevalence of asthma among girls, based on random effect model, was 6.30% (95% Cl: 4.97-7.61) and<br> among boys, it was 8.91% (95% Cl: 6.80-11.04).<br> <strong>Conclusion:</strong> The prevalence of asthma in the Middle East is lower than most developed countries. However, there is not enough<br> longitudinal data to estimate the trend over time. In order to have more accurate estimates and to provide evidence for proper planning,<br> standard epidemiologic studies should be conducted in countries of the region.</p> Asthma, Prevalence, Middle East, Children, Systematic review 43 52 http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-2197-3&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Masoud Mirzaei 200319475328460031195 200319475328460031195 No Yazd Cardiovascular Research Centre, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. Mehran Karimi 200319475328460031196 200319475328460031196 No Department of Pediatrics, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran. Shima Beheshti 200319475328460031197 200319475328460031197 No Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, Bandar Abbas, Iran. Masoud Mohammadi masoud.mohammadi1989@yahoo.com 200319475328460031198 200319475328460031198 Yes Department of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.