Figure 3. Relative risks (RRs) for diseases associated with body mass index (BMI).
The figure shows RRs for 5 kg/m2 higher baseline BMI. The figure shows RRs converted to comparable age group as described in Methods. See Table S1 for RRs in original age groups from each study. The percentage of variation in the pooled estimates that is due to statistical heterogeneity was evaluated using the I2 statistic for each age group and outcome. Of all the outcomes and age groups analyzed, the three age groups below age 65 years in the pooled analysis for hypertensive heart disease had non-zero I2 values: 79.2% for ages 35–44 years, 69.0% for ages 45–54 years, and 37.2% for ages 55–64 years. *The associations with haemorrhagic stroke are for BMIs above 25 kg/m2 as described in text.