title: The Needs of Parents of Preterm Infants in Iran and a Comparison With Those in Other Countries: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Proper accountability to needs of preterm infants' parents requires recognition of these needs and how they change in different conditions. The aim of this study was to assess the needs of parents of preterm infants in Iran, as compared to those in other regions in the world.
  
  
  METHODS
  A search of Iranian databases (Iran Medex, Magiran, and SID) and international resources (PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar) was conducted, with no time limitations, to 5 October 2014. Using standard tools, all quantitative studies that considering the parental needs of preterm infants and parental support were extracted. The STROBE checklist was used for the evaluation of the studies. Thirty-one studies were extracted in the qualitative evaluation, of which 17 were included in the meta-analysis. The variance between the studies was analyzed using tau-squared (Tau2) and review manager 5 software.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results obtained using the nurse-parent support tool (NPST) showed that mothers considered that all the fields of support were of great importance. The parental needs in Iran were similar to those of parents in other regions worldwide. However, the mean score for Iranian parents' assessment of the support they received was 2.20 ± 0.06, whereas it was 3.84 ± 0.72 for other countries. The mean scores for parents' assessment of the provision of emotional, informational appraisal, and instrumental support in Iran were 1.73 ± 0.06, 2.1 ± 0.06, 1.54 ± 0.6, and 3.44 ± 0.04, respectively, compared to 3.18 ± 1.34, 4.11 ± 0.5, 4.26 ± 0.18, and 4.51 ± 0.14, respectively, in other countries.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Parents always prefer the priorities of their babies to their individual needs. Given the lower scores for the parental assessment of received support in Iran, it is important to focus on these specific items in providing interventions to meet the needs of Iranian parents.
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Seyedeh Saeedeh
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Mousavi
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Department of Community Medicine, Yasuj University Of Medical Sciences, Yasuj, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chaman
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Related Social and Behavioral Sciences Research, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Ahmad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khosravi
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Parisa
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mohagheghi
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Related Social and Behavioral Sciences Research, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Abbas
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Mousavi
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Related Social and Behavioral Sciences Research, Shahroud University of Medical Sciences, Shahroud, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Afsaneh
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Keramat
keywords: Needs; Parents; Premature Infant; Support; Systematic Review