Age-dependent decline of association between XXXX and mortality: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

@entity1 @entity6 @entity101 @entity28
OBJECTIVE: It is debatable if the strength of @entity28 -mortality association depends on age. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of age on the @entity28 -mortality association in @entity1 and @entity1 , and to assess if adjusting for major confounding factors altered the age-dependent trend of the @entity28 -mortality association. DESIGN AND METHODS: Articles were identified by searches of PubMed through 15 August 2013. Twenty studies which reported two or more age-specific effect estimates were identified. A random-effect approach was applied to estimate pooled effect sizes for different age groups. RESULTS: There was a significant heterogeneity among studies within each age group in the effect estimates for the association between @entity28 and mortality. The pooled hazard ratio estimates decreased with increasing age from 1.59 (95% confidence interval, 1.46-1.72) for @entity1 and 1.60 (1.49-1.72) for @entity1 under 35 years to 1.11 (1.08-1.15) for @entity1 and 1.11 (1.09-1.14) for @entity1 75 years or older. On average, the effect estimate was decreased by about 10% with every 10 years increase in age. CONCLUSIONS: Adjusting for known confounding factors of smoking, pre-existing illness, @entity101 and @entity6 has little impact on the age-dependent decline trend of the @entity28 -mortality association. Therefore, the strength of the association between @entity28 and mortality weakens with increasing age.
