Prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and the related risk factors among healthy adults: A cross-sectional study in Chongqing, China

Lingxi Kong; Yang Yang; Haidong Li; Youlan Shan; Xin Wang; Xuefeng Shan

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2023.1127489

Prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and the related risk factors among healthy adults: A cross-sectional study in Chongqing, China

Front Public Health. 2023 Mar 30:11:1127489. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1127489. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Lingxi Kong¹, Yang Yang², Haidong Li³, Youlan Shan⁴, Xin Wang⁵, Xuefeng Shan¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
² Department of Anesthesiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
³ Foreign Affairs Department of Scientific Research, Stomatological Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
⁴ Department of Infectious Disease, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
⁵ West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.

Abstract

Background: Epidemiological characteristics of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in Chongqing, a west-central city of China, remain unclear. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of NAFLD and the related risk factors among healthy adults for physical examination in Chongqing.

Methods: A total of 110,626 subjects were enrolled in the present study. Each of the participants underwent physical examination, laboratory measurements, and abdominal ultrasonography. The chi-square test was employed to compare differences in the NAFLD prevalence, and logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the odds ratio for risk factors of NAFLD.

Results: The prevalence of NAFLD in individuals in the population of Chongqing was 28.5%, and the prevalence in men (38.1%) was significantly higher than that in women (13.6%) (OR = 2.44; 95% CI: 2.31-2.58). NAFLD was more common in men aged 51-60 years and women over 60 years. Approximately 79.1% of the people with obesity and 52.1% of the people with central obesity had NAFLD. The prevalence of NAFLD in people with hypertension and cholelithiasis was 48.9 and 38.4%, respectively. Logistic regression showed that gender, age, body max index (BMI), central obesity, hypertension, impaired fasting glucose/diabetes mellitus (DM), triglyceride (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), hyperuricemia (HUA), alanine transaminase (ALT), and cholelithiasis were independently associated with the presence of NAFLD.

Conclusion: The prevalence of NAFLD among healthy adults in Chongqing was high. To improve the prevention and management of NAFLD, special attention should be paid to the factors associated with the presence of NAFLD, including higher BMI, higher waist circumference, higher blood glucose, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperuricemia, cholelithiasis, and elevated ALT.

Keywords: central obesity; nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); obesity; prevalence; risk factors.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Alanine Transaminase / blood
China / epidemiology
Cholelithiasis / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Hyperglycemia / epidemiology
Hypertension / epidemiology
Hypertriglyceridemia / epidemiology
Hyperuricemia / epidemiology
Male
Middle Aged
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease* / blood
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease* / epidemiology
Obesity / epidemiology
Obesity, Abdominal / epidemiology
Prevalence
Risk Factors

Substances

Alanine Transaminase

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81902856) and the Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing (cstc2021jcyj- msxmX0059).