Background and Aim: Although circumcision is commonly done in Iran and the Muslims have emphasis on doing it, there have been very few reports on this subject. It was thus aimed to obtain more information about the commonest age of doing it, the groups who do it, the prevalence of complications and some factors.
Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was done in 2003- 2004 on 1000 boys of the first to third degree of primary schools who were chosen through cluster and systematic sampling. We gained information by questionnaires that were filled out by their parents.
Results: 971 boys (91.7%) were circumcised, the mean age was 4.36±2.39 years. the commonest age was between 2-6 years old (60.8%), the most of them were done in summer (56.64%) and by experimental persons (48.8%). The rate of complications was 8.4% and the commonest was hemorrhage (51.2%). The higher circumcision age was related significantly with higher complication (P<0.001). The highest rates of complications were belonged to experimental persons (70.7%). Nearly half (48.9%) of the children were circumcised in house and 51.1% in medical centers. The rate of complication in child that was circumcised in house was 12.2% and in medical centers were 4.8%. There was a significant relationship between the parent’s literacy, and the agents of circumcision (P<0.001). With the decreasing level of parent’s literacy, we had more experimental persons who did circumcision.
Conclusion: Since the complications of circumcision depend on the agent and place of doing it, we recommended that circumcision will be done by an expert medical group and in clean place like hospital and clinic, preferably in neonatal period.