Table 1.
Study eligibility criteria.
| Criteria | Inclusion | Exclusion |
|---|---|---|
| Population | Pregnant women regardless of their age, parity, or any maternal or sociodemographic characteristics | Non-pregnant women |
| Outcome | Studies reported quantitative or calculable GDM prevalence estimate(s) regardless of the GDM diagnostic criteria/guidelines or pregnancy trimester | Studies on pregnant women with no information related to GDM prevalence |
| Sample size | Studies with at least ten pregnant women tested for GDM | Studies with less than ten pregnant women tested for GDM |
| Study design | Cross-sectional, cohort studies, case–control studies comparing no-GDM with no-GDM subpopulations, and trials with nonpharmaceutical interventions | Case–control studies comparing GDM with no-GDM populations, qualitative studies, modeling studies, case reports and case series regardless of the number of cases, narrative and systematic reviews, conference abstracts with no full information, editorials, commentaries, letters to the editor, author replies, and other publications that did not include quantitative data on the prevalence of GDM |
| Geographical region | Any of the 18 Arab countries (Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, West Bank and Gaza, and Yemen) in addition to Iran and Malta in the MENA region, according to the definition of the World Bank Country and Lending Groups (17). | All other countries |
| Publication period | January 2000 to December 2019 | Studies conducted before January 2000 or after December 2019 and studies for which the time period of the GDM tests in pregnant women was unclear |
| Language | English language | Non-English studies |
| Setting | No limitations. Hospital based, population based, or clinic based. | No limitations |
| Duplicate studies | – | Studies duplicating or potentially duplicating GDM ascertainment in the same population. In the case of duplicate publications, we included only the study containing the most relevant information in the context of the prevalence of GDM |