Table 1.

Characteristics of the primary studies included in the present meta-analysis

Id	First author	Publication year	Target population	Sample size			Prevalence of vitamin D deficiency
				Total	Male	Female	Total	Female	Male
1	Shahla20	2005	General population	162	-	162	82.1	82.1	-
2	Salak21	2007	Children	513	271	242	26	12.26	13.74
3	Heidarpour22	2006	Children	318	153	165	46.2	72.1	18.3
4	Hatami23	2014	Pregnant women	100	-	100	76	76	-
5	Rostami24	2015	Pregnant women	1581	-	1581	84.4	84.4	-
6	Banakdaran25	2015	General population	902	380	522	79.3	45.89	33.5
7	Karimi26	2014	Children	216	-	216	96	96	-
8	Shakiba27	2008	General population	82	41	41	91.5	-	-
9	Talaei28	2011	Children	420	200	220	84	99.1	66.5
10	Asadi29	2015	Pregnant women	186	-	186	74.4	74.4	-
11	Rahimi30	2005	General population	252	-	252	64.2	64.2	-
12	Ghanei31	2014	Children	124	59	65	81	100	61
13	Azizi32	2000	General population	1172	490	682	78.63	91	60
14	Akhlaghi33	2015	Pregnant women	190	-	190	85.3	85.3
15	Khalaji34	2013	Children	1111	573	538	91.7	94.8	88.8
16	Ghazi35	2001	General population	172	-	-	54	-	-
17	Rabbani36	2009	Children	963	424	539	35	53.6	11.3
18	Saki37	2015	Children	477	-		81.3	-	-
19	Salek38	2008	Pregnant women	88	-	88	26.1	26.1	-
20	Shakiba39	2009	Children	167	-	167	59.9	59.9	-
21	Asadi40	2009	Children	250	-	250	59.6	59.6	-
22	Zahed41	2015	Dialysis	135	-	-	63	-	-
23	Banakdaran42	2010	Type 2 diabetes	119	-	-	26.1	-	-
24	Paknahad43	2015	Metabolic syndrome	156	-	-	54.5	-	-
25	Kaykhaei44	2011	General population	993	431	562	85.2	89	80.3
26	Savaj45	2012	Kidney transplantation	113	-	-	45	-	-
27	Hosseinpanah46	2010	General population	100	-	100	36	36	-
28	Hosseinpanah46	2010	General population	100	-	100	31	31	-
29	Ataie-Jafari47	2012	Type 1 diabetes	53	-	-	77	-	-
30	Javadian48	2016	Knee osteoarthritis	92	20	72	69.5	75	50
31	Larijani49	2016	Children	444	227	217	43.3	71.23	17.47
32	Mirsaeid ghazi50	2004	General population	1172	490	682	52	69	35
33	Saki51	2016	Type 1 diabetes	85	39	46	88.2	84.6	91.8
34	Zolfaghari52	2016	Degenerative diseases	110	54	56	44.5	-	-
35	Hossein-Nezhad53	2014	Coronary artery diseases	760	582	178	98	-	-
36	Heidari54	2012	General population	696	120	576	70.1	70.8	67.5
37	Shamsian55	2016	General population	1110	262	848	68.8	-	-
38	Abbasian56	2016	Pregnant women	284	-	284	2.5	2.5	-
39	Chitsaz57	2013	Parkinson’s disease	109	77	32	38.4	-
40	Heidari58	2016	Type 2 diabetes	84	39	45	35.72	13.09	22.62
41	Fallahi59	2016	Children	62	-	-	56.5	-	-
42	Kelishadi60	2016	Children	1095	569	526	40	39.3	40.7
43	Entezari-Maleki61	2014	Thromboembolism	60	32	28	60	57.1	61.1
44	Asadi62	2016	Pregnant women	186	-	-	74.4	-	-
45	Sobouti63	2016	Pediatric burns	118	50	68	81.35	-	-
46	Ardestani64	2010	Children	513	271	242	5	2.1	3.7
47	Hejazi65	2015	Asthma	120	-	-	73.3	-	-
48	Rafraf66	2013	Children	216	216	-	96	96	-