Table 3. Determination of the genetic effects of apoE polymorphisms on ESRD and subgroup analyses.

	Studies number	Heterogeneity (P value)	Model	OR (95 % CI)	P value
Genetic contrasts
ε2ε2+ versus ε2ε2-	16	0.78	Fixed	2.03 (1.27, 3.26)	0.003
ε2ε3+ versus ε2ε3-	16	0.06	Random	1.25 (1.03, 1.51)	0.02
ε2ε4+ versus ε2ε4-	16	0.88	Fixed	1.43 (0.99, 2.06)	0.05
ε3ε3+ versus ε3ε3-	16	0.02	Random	0.96 (0.83, 1.10)	0.56
ε3ε4+ versus ε3ε4-	16	0.05	Random	0.91 (0.78, 1.07)	0.27
ε4ε4+ versus ε4ε4-	16	0.41	Fixed	0.55 (0.38, 0.81)	0.002
ε2+ versus ε2 -	16	0.24	Fixed	1.30 (1.15, 1.46)	0.0001
ε3+ versus ε3-	16	0.05	Random	0.97 (0.87, 1.08)	0.57
ε4+ versus ε4-	16	0.06	Random	0.86 (0.75, 0.99)	0.04
East Asians
ε2ε2+ versus ε2ε2-	6	0.65	Fixed	1.52 (0.47, 4.90)	0.48
ε2ε3+ versus ε2ε3-	6	0.18	Fixed	1.66 (1.31, 2.10)	0.0001
ε2ε4+ versus ε2ε4-	6	0.76	Fixed	1.63 (0.73, 3.65)	0.23
ε3ε3+ versus ε3ε3-	6	0.18	Fixed	0.81 (0.69, 0.94)	0.007
ε3ε4+ versus ε3ε4-	6	0.45	Fixed	1.02 (0.84, 1.23)	0.86
ε4ε4+ versus ε4ε4-	6	0.56	Fixed	0.19 (0.05, 0.73)	0.01
ε2+ versus ε2 -	6	0.20	Fixed	1.62 (1.31, 2.01)	0.0001
ε3+ versus ε3-	6	0.09	Random	0.81 (0.66, 1.00)	0.05
ε4+ versus ε4-	6	0.26	Fixed	0.94 (0.79, 1.11)	0.45
Caucasians
ε2ε2+ versus ε2ε2-	10	0.64	Fixed	2.16 (1.29, 3.61)	0.003
ε2ε3+ versus ε2ε3-	10	0.75	Fixed	1.01 (0.85, 1.20)	0.90
ε2ε4+ versus ε2ε4-	10	0.72	Fixed	1.38 (0.92, 2.08)	0.12
ε3ε3+ versus ε3ε3-	10	0.33	Fixed	1.11 (0.99, 1.24)	0.09
ε3ε4+ versus ε3ε4-	10	0.04	Random	0.85 (0.68, 1.07)	0.17
ε4ε4+ versus ε4ε4-	10	0.47	Fixed	0.64 (0.43, 0.96)	0.03
ε2+ versus ε2 -	10	0.81	Fixed	1.17 (1.02, 1.36)	0.03
ε3+ versus ε3-	10	0.43	Fixed	1.06 (0.96, 1.17)	0.25
ε4+ versus ε4-	10	0.06	Random	0.81 (0.67, 0.98)	0.03