A meta-analysis of the association of obesity with abdominal aortic aneurysm presence.

Aim: 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.

Conclusion: Obesity appears to be unassociated with AAA presence.