Introduction: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become a leading cause of liver disease worldwide. The prevalence of NAFLD varies depending on population studied and type of diagnostic tools used to screen or diagnose the patients. There is a strong relationship between metabolic syndrome components and NAFLD prevalence. This study aims to understand the prevalence of NAFLD along with the associated risk factors and their interaction with other comorbidities among people living with diabetes in Indian context.
Materials and methods: It is a retrospective, observational study based on data retrieved from electronic medical records (EMRs) of people living with diabetes from more than 250 individual diabetes centers located in more than 30 cities across 14 states in India. Medical records of 171,996 adults living with diabetes were included in the analysis. The assessment of prevalence of NAFLD in diabetes was done using algorithm based on alanine transaminase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST).
Results: Overall, 44.48% of people living with diabetes were found to have NAFLD. A significantly higher proportion of males (58.64%) had NAFLD compared to females (36.91%) (p<0.001). Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease prevalence was >50% in seven of the states. People living with diabetes along with dyslipidemia and hypertension had a significantly higher prevalence of NAFLD (p<0.001). Obesity (57.1%), dyslipidemia (59.1%), and hypertriglyceridemia (42.3%) had significantly higher odds of NAFLD among people living with diabetes.
Conclusion: This study highlighted high-risk categories for NAFLD in diabetes, like young, obese, hypertriglyceridemia, poor glycemic control, etc. This information will help health care providers in prioritizing screening among high-risk diabetes population.
© Journal of the Association of Physicians of India 2011.