• Public Health Program, University of Utah School of Medicine, Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

BACKGROUND: Meniscal tears are common knee injuries, with limited reported data on associated factors, let alone risk factors. The objective of this study was to determine whether associations exist between increasing obesity and meniscal tears leading to surgery.

METHODS: We performed frequency-matched case-control studies using surgical case data for years 1996 to 2000 from administrative databases of two large Utah hospitals; each case was matched with three controls from a large cancer screening trial. Meniscal tear cases (262 male and 282 female) were determined by surgical procedures. Inclusion criteria were age (50 to 79) and body mass index (BMI) (17.00 to 54.99 kg/m(2)). Gender-specific, age-adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated for BMI categories from <20.00 to >/=40.00. The referent BMI category was 20.00 to 22.49.

RESULTS: Age-adjusted odds ratios for likelihood of meniscal surgery among those with a BMI of >/=40.00 were 15.0 (95% CI=3.8-59.0) for men, and 25.1 (95% CI=10.3-60.8) for women. All odds ratios for men and women with BMIs of >/=27.50 and >/=25.00, respectively, were statistically significantly elevated.

CONCLUSIONS: Significant associations were demonstrated between increasing BMI and meniscal surgeries in both genders, including obese and overweight adults.