Correlation of C-reactive protein level and obesity in Chinese adults and children: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis evaluated the correlations between C-reactive protein (CRP) and obesity in Chinese adults and children. We searched three Chinese databases [Wanfang, WEIPU, and Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI)] in addition to PubMed. The search was restricted to only Chinese studies published online before January 9, 2013. Data from 28 articles were independently abstracted by two reviewers. The articles' characteristics were abstracted as follows: 1) first author name; 2) year of publication; 3) study population; 4) sample size; 5) sex, age, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), and CRP level of the study population; 6) Pearson correlation coefficients, Spearman correlation coefficients, or odds ratios between CRP level and obesity. The metaanalysis was conducted to pool the Pearson correlation coefficients using a random-effects model. The pooled Pearson correlation coefficient between CRP and BMI was 0.45 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.33-0.56] in Chinese adults and 0.46 (95% CI: 0.31-0.62) in Chinese children, and the pooled Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.32 (95% CI: 0.24-0.40) in the general Chinese population and 0.53 (95% CI: 0.42-0.64) in the obese Chinese population. Significant correlation was thus found between CRP and obesity in Chinese adults and children.