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History of weight and obesity through life and risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia

International Journal of Obesity volume 29, pages 798–803 (2005)Cite this article

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

The relation of anthropometric measures, diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) risk was investigated.

DESIGN:

Hospital-based case–control study.

SUBJECTS:

Cases were 1369 men with histologically confirmed BPH, and controls were 1451 men below 75 y, admitted to hospital for acute non-neoplastic diseases.

MEASUREMENTS:

Using a structured questionnaire, trained interviewers collected information on self-reported height and weight, and measured waist and hip circumference of patients. The odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using unconditional multiple logistic regression models.

RESULTS:

Compared to the corresponding lowest quartile, the OR for the highest one were 0.76 (95% CI 0.59–0.98) for body weight, 0.71 (95% CI 0.54–0.94) for waist-to-hip ratio and 0.87 (95% CI 0.70–1.09) for body mass index (BMI, kg/m2). Compared to a lowest lifelong BMI <20.7 kg/m2, the OR was 1.56 (95% CI 1.25–1.95) for a lowest lifelong BMI ≥23.7 kg/m2. The OR was 0.74 (95% CI 0.60–0.93) for a lifelong increase of BMI ≥6.1 kg/m2, compared to <1.6 kg/m2. No association emerged for history of diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia.

CONCLUSIONS:

Overweight was modestly, inversely related to BPH. The hypothesis of reduced testosterone levels in obese individuals may explain the different BPH risk and need to be tested.

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Acknowledgements

This work was conducted with the contribution of the Italian League against Cancer, the Italian Association for Cancer Research and the Italian Ministry of Research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unitǎ di Epidemiologia e Biostatistica, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, Aviano (PN), Italy

    A Zucchetto, L Dal Maso & R Talamini

  2. Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche ‘Mario Negri’, Milan, Italy

    A Tavani, S Gallus, E Negri & C La Vecchia

  3. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France

    S Franceschi

  4. Servizio di Epidemiologia, Istituto Tumori ‘Fondazione Pascale’, Napoli, Italy

    M Montella

  5. Istituto di Statistica Medica e Biometria, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy

    C La Vecchia

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  1. A Zucchetto
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Correspondence to A Tavani.

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Zucchetto, A., Tavani, A., Dal Maso, L. et al. History of weight and obesity through life and risk of benign prostatic hyperplasia. Int J Obes 29, 798–803 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802979

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ijo.0802979

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