The age of the 20,488 participants ranged from 20 to 85 years with an average age of 58.5 years across the cohorts (Table 1). The fraction of men included in each cohort varied from 0% to 43%. In all studies that included both genders, men had on average a lower BMI than the women. Participants in the Hypertensive Genetic Epidemiology Network (HyperGEN) had the highest BMI while participants in the Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) had the lowest BMI. The obesity rate (defined as BMI≥30 kg/m2) across the studies was 46% ranging from 31% to 58%.
