Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30544688›Full record

SynthesisInternational journal of environmental research and public health2018

Risk Factors for Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm in Population-Based Studies: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Emma Altobelli, Leonardo Rapacchietta, Valerio F Profeta, Roberto Fagnano

Abstract readMeta-AnalysisSystematic Review
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in International journal of environmental research and public health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 107 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
107citing papers in PubMed, 6 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

107 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Guideline
  3. Pooled it
  4. Guideline
  5. Guideline
  6. Pooled it
  7. Trial
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Value-Based Medicine in the Management of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2026
    Review
  11. Aortic comparison of monozygotic twins and their nontwin siblings.Journal of vascular surgery cases and innovative techniques · 2026
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. Review
  20. Article

47 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Emma AltobelliDepartment of Life, Health and Environmental Sciences, University of L'Aquila, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy. emma.altobelli@cc.univaq.it.
Leonardo RapacchiettaEpidemiology and Biostatistics Unit, Local Health Unit, 64100 Teramo, Italy. leonardo.rapacchietta@gmail.com.
Valerio F ProfetaDepartment of community Health, Local Health Unit, 64100 Teramo, Italy. valerio.profeta@aslteramo.it.
Roberto FagnanoManager of Local Health Unit 4, 64100 Teramo, Italy. roberto.fagnano@aslteramo.it.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

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 diseases, it is not a risk factor for AAA. In addition, it is important to underline that all countries, where AAA screening was set up, had high income level and the majority belong to Western Europe (United Kingdom, Sweden, Italy, Poland, Spain and Belgium). Abdominal aortic aneurysm screening is fundamental for public health. It could avoid deaths, ruptures, and emergency surgical interventions if abdominal aortic aneurysm was diagnosed early in the population target for screening.

Indexed as

Aortic Aneurysm, AbdominalCoronary Artery DiseaseFemaleHumansHypertensionMaleMedical History TakingRisk FactorsSex FactorsSmokingabdominal aortic aneurysmmeta-analysisobservational studiesrisk factors

Identifiers

PMID30544688
PMCPMC6313801

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.