Abstract

Background: Obstructive jaundice is a common illness in the elderly population. The frequency of disease is higher among female than male, and the most frequent cause of the obstructive disease is gallstones. This study aimed to study the relationship between obstructive jaundice and body mass index (BMI) in Saudi population.
Methods: A case-control study was conducted as the files of patients who were admitted to the Surgery Department in Aseer Central Hospital from July 2016 to July 2017 were reviewed and classified into cases, which were the patients diagnosed with obstructive jaundice, and controls, which were the patients who were free of having any biliary disorder.
Results: The study included 174 cases and 170 controls. About 7% of cases and controls aged less than 30 years, and also, 28% of cases aged above 50 years compared to 25% of controls with no recorded statistical significance. As for gender, 69% of cases were females compared to 63.5% of controls without a marked significant difference. It was found that 2.9% of cases were underweight compared to 6.5% of controls. Furthermore,
26.4% of cases were obese compared to 7.6% of controls. Crude relationship between BMI and jaundice revealed that patients with overweight had 50% more risk for having obstructive jaundice than patients with normal weights (odds ratio = 1.5; 95% confidence interval: 1.1-2.6), which became 70% after adjusting for age and gender.
Conclusion: Overweight and obesity were significantly associated with having obstructive jaundice, especially among females. Researchers recommended that more attention should be paid for females with increased weights to avoid developing biliary disorders by modifying lifestyle and weight control.

Key words: Overweight, obesity, jaundice, biliary disorders, gallstones.