Obesity indices as risk factor for colorectal cancer in patients at a national police hospital in Peru

Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) represents the third most diagnosed form of cancer around the world, accounting for 11% of all cancer diagnoses. It has been seen that obesity is closely linked to this disease. Materials and methods: This study is a non-paired case-control study. To measure obesity, the body mass index (BMI), new body mass index (NBMI), and the triponderal index (TPI) were used. Logistic regression was used to obtain the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) by age and sex, confidence interval (95%CI). Results: The sample was 246 patients. The prevalence of obesity according to BMI was 12.20%. The multivariable analysis found statistically significant association between CRC and obesity according to BMI (aOR: 3.23; 95% CI 1.26-8.30) compared to normal weight; NBMI tertile 3 (aOR: 4.02; 95% CI 1.95-8.30), compared to tertile 1; and TPI tertile 3 (aOR: 4.55; 95% CI 2.21-9.35) versus tertile 1. Conclusions: Obesity, is a risk factor for CRC. Future studies might consider useful different ways to measure obesity to define population strata with a higher-risk of CRC.