title: Lower prevalence than expected when screening 70-year-old men for abdominal aortic aneurysm.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Screening 65-year-old men for abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) is a cost-effective method to reduce the mortality from ruptured AAA. However, contemporary results show a lower than expected prevalence of AAA, thus questioning the benefit of screening. Since the prevalence increases with age, a possible way to enhance the benefit of screening might be to screen older men. Our aim was to determine the contemporary screening-detected prevalence among 70-year-old men.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 5,623 unscreened 70-year-old men were invited to ultrasound screening. Uni- and multivariable analyses were used to assess the risk factors for AAA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The attendance rate was 84.0%. The prevalence of previously unknown AAAs was 2.3%. When adding the 64 men with an already known AAA to the screening-detected ones, the total prevalence in the population was at least 3.0%, and the previously discovered AAAs constituted 37.4% of the total prevalence. "Ex smoker" and "Current smoker" were the most important risk factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  When screening 70-year-old men for AAA, the prevalence was less than half that expected, despite a high attendance rate. Smoking was the strongest risk factor. Almost 40% of the men with AAAs were already known from other means than screening.
authors: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, University Hospital, Linköping, Sweden; Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, University Hospital, Linköping, Sweden. Electronic address: Jakob.Hager@Lio.se.
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Hager
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Länne
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Carlsson
authors: F
authors: F
authors: Lundgren
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000453:epidemiology; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D014463:Ultrasonography
keywords: Abdominal aortic aneurysm; Attendance rate; Prevalence; Screening; Swedvasc