IJERPH, Vol. 15, Pages 2805: Risk Factors for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm in Population-Based Studies: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

IJERPH, Vol. 15, Pages 2805: Risk Factors for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm in Population-Based Studies: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health doi: 10.3390/ijerph15122805 Authors: Emma Altobelli Leonardo Rapacchietta Valerio F. Profeta Roberto Fagnano Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) represents an important public health problem with a prevalence between 1.3% and 12.5%. Several population-based randomized trials have evaluated ultrasound screening for AAA providing evidence of a reduction in aneurysm-related mortality in the screened population. The aim of our study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of the risk factors for AAA. We conducted a systematic review of observational studies and we performed a meta-analysis that evaluated the following risk factors: gender, smoking habits, hypertension, coronary artery disease and family history of AAA. Respect to a previous a meta-analysis we added the funnel plot to examine the effect sizes estimated from individual studies as measure of their precision; sensitivity analysis to check the stability of study findings and estimate how the overall effect size would be modified by removal of one study; cumulative analysis to evaluate the trend between studies in relation to publication year. Abdominal aortic aneurysm prevalence is higher in smokers and in males. On the other hand, while diabetes is a risk factor for many cardiovascular disease...
Source: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Review Source Type: research