title: A meta-analysis of the association of obesity with abdominal aortic aneurysm presence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this paper was to determine whether obesity is associated with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) presence. We performed the first meta-analysis of currently available studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  MEDLINE and EMBASE were searched through January 2014. Eligible studies were comparative studies comparing body mass index (BMI) in patients with AAA to that in subjects without AAA or estimating a relative risk of AAA prevalence for subjects with obesity (high BMI).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 183 potentially relevant articles screened initially, 19 eligible studies enrolling 29,120 patients with AAA and 3,163,575 subjects without AAA were identified and included. A pooled analysis demonstrated no statistically significant difference between BMI in the AAA group and that in the control group: mean difference, 0.46 kg/m2; 95% confidence interval, -0.07 to 1.00 kg/m2; P=0.09. Another pooled analysis demonstrated that obesity was unassociated with a statistically significant increase in AAA prevalence: odds ratio, 1.07; 95% confidence interval, 0.94 to 1.22; P=0.30. There was no evidence of significant publication bias: P=0.69 and 0.90 for mean difference and odds ratio, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Obesity appears to be unassociated with AAA presence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Shizuoka Medical Center, Shizuoka, Japan - kfgth963@ybb.ne.jp.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Takagi
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Umemoto
mesh_terms: D017544:Aortic Aneurysm, Abdominal / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016017:Odds Ratio