Background Interleukin 10 (IL-10) is an important cytokine with anti-inflammatory, anti-immune and anti-fibrotic functions.This study aimed at evaluating the relationship between allele polymorphisms in the IL-10 promoter region and hepatitis B virus (HBV) or hepazitis C virus (HCV) infection.Methods The odds ratios (ORs) of IL-10 allele distributions in patients with HBV or HCV infection were analyzed against healthy controls.All the relevant studies in PubMed were identified, and poor qualified studies were excluded.The meta-analysis software REVMAN 4.2 was applied for investigating heterogeneity among individual studies and summarizing all the studies.The publication bias was also evaluated.Results This study demonstrated a significant association between the IL-10-592 A/C polymorphism and HBV infection in the Asian population under the overall effect size of allele A versus C.In our subgroup meta-analysis, we found a significant association of IL-10-592 A/C polymorphism to HCV infection susceptibility in Asian populations, although sensitivity analysis showed that the combined result was not associated with the worldwide population.Other IL-10 allele polymorphisms were not associated with HBV or HCV infection.Conclusion IL-10-592 A/C allele might be a risk factor for HBV or HCV in Asians but not in Europeans.