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

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

Hospital-based case-control study.

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

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.

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/m(2)). Compared to a lowest lifelong BMI <20.7 kg/m(2), the OR was 1.56 (95% CI 1.25-1.95) for a lowest lifelong BMI > or =23.7 kg/m(2). The OR was 0.74 (95% CI 0.60-0.93) for a lifelong increase of BMI > or =6.1 kg/m(2), compared to <1.6 kg/m(2). No association emerged for history of diabetes, hypertension and hyperlipidemia.

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.