Table 2
Pooled Estimated Relative Risk and 95% CI—All Studiesa
| Exposure Area | Studies Included | Pooled Estimated Relative Risk (95 % CI)
| |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVD | CHD | Stroke | PADb | ||
| High Exposure Areas | |||||
| Overallc | [23,24,27,28••,29•,30,33–38,40,53–57] | 1.32 (1.05–1.67) | 1.89 (1.33–2.69) | 1.08 (0.98–1.19)d | 2.17 (1.47–3.20) |
| Internal comparisons | [27, 28••,29•,30,33,56] | 1.46 (1.19–1.80) | 2.62 (1.09–6.32) | 1.03 (0.55–1.94) | --e |
| External comparisons | [34,37,53] | 1.01 (0.88–1.17) | 1.39 (1.07–1.80) | 1.07 (0.95–1.20) | 1.69 (0.62–4.63) |
| Urine arsenic | [24,28••,35,40,54] | 1.55 (1.01–2.37) | 3.25 (0.97–10.93) | 1.03 (0.53–2.02) | 1.86 (1.46–2.37) |
| Water arsenic | [23,25,27,28••,29•,30,33,36–38,55–57] | 1.30 (1.04–1.62) | 2.02 (1.33–3.07) | 1.16 (0.98–1.37) | 3.21 (2.27–4.53) |
| Low to Moderate Exposure Areas | |||||
| Overall | [31•,32•,41,43,44,59–62] | 1.06 (0.99–1.14) | 1.06 (0.89–1.26) | 1.07 (0.96–1.20) | 1.13 (0.77–1.66) |
CHD: Coronary heart disease; CI: Confidence interval; CVD: Cardiovascular disease; PAD: Peripheral arterial disease. RR: relative risk.
aExcluding Rapant et al. 2009 [42] and Varsanyi et al. 1991 [49] because they did not report enough data to calculate confidence intervals.
bIncludes peripheral arterial disease and diseases of the arteries, arterioles, and capillaries.
cIf a study included results for multiple media, either urine and water arsenic (Chen et al. 2011 [28••] and Tseng et al. 1996 [25]/Tseng et al. 2005 [24]) or urine and hair arsenic (Afridi et al. 2010 [39]; 2011[40]), only the urine result was used in the overall pooled RR.
dAfter removing an influential study, the estimated pooled relative risk for stroke was 1.12 (95 % CI: 1.04, 1.22).
eNo studies examined for this exposure level, study design, and outcome.