The association between BMI and cervical cancer risk

The association between BMI and cervical cancer risk is not clear. This meta-analysis was carried out to estimate the association between overweight and obesity and cervical cancer risk. We searched PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, LILACS, and SciELO for observational studies addressing the association between BMI and cervical cancer until February 2015. Data were independently extracted and analyzed using odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), on the basis of random-effects models. We identified a total of 3543 references and included nine studies with 128 233 participants. On the basis of the results of case-control and cohort studies, the association between cervical cancer and overweight was estimated to be 1.03 (95% CI: 0.81, 1.25) and 1.10 (95% CI: 1.03, 1.17), respectively. According to the results of case-control and cohort studies, the association between cervical cancer and obesity was estimated to be 1.40 (95% CI: 1.08, 1.71) and 1.08 (95% CI: 0.60, 1.52), respectively. No evidence of heterogeneity and publication bias was observed. The findings from this meta-analysis indicate that overweight is not associated with an increased risk of cervical cancer, but obesity is weakly associated with an increased risk of cervical cancer. However, more evidence, based on large prospective cohort studies, is required to provide conclusive evidence on whether or not BMI is associated with an increased risk of cervical cancer.