Background: The purpose of this survey was to confirm the prevalence and adverse profiles of fatty liver disease among different ethnic public servants in Urumqi of Xinjiang.
Methods: The cross-sectional study were implemented among serving and retired public servants who participated in the annual physical check-up including abdominal ultrasonography from April 2012 to April 2013 at the health promotion center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinjiang Medical University in Urumqi. The information including questionnaires, anthropometric indexes and biochemical profiles were collected to analyze.
Results: There were 46612 individuals ranging from 20 to 93 years of age included in the analysis. There were 39120 of Han, 4148 of Uygur, 877 of Kazakh, 2098 of Hui, and 369 of other ethnic groups. The prevalence of FLD in total, Han, Hui, Uygur, Kazakh and other ethnic group were 32.0%, 31.2%, 31.5%, 39.3%, 36.4% and 32.8%. Uygur was significantly higher than the other ethnic groups both male and female (P < 0.01) and male was higher than female regardless of ethnicity (P < 0.01). FLD co-exiting with DM, hypertension, obesity, overweight and dysliplidemia (especially for hypertriglyceridemia) were common and distribution of these diseases were significantly different among various ethnicity (P < 0.01). Multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that there were different in adverse factors including age, gender, DM, obesity, dyslipidemia and hypertension of FLD among ethnicity and obesity having higher OR value in each ethnic group can be as predictive index of FLD.
Conclusions: The high prevalence of FLD is present among public servants in Urumqi of Xinjiang, China. The prevalence of FLD is significantly different in different ethnic groups and genders. Distributions of adverse factors are disparate in different ethnicity. Comprehensive strategies for the prevention and treatment of FLD should be explored basing on the ethnic differences.
Keywords: Fatty liver; adverse profiles; ethnicity; prevalence; public servants.