Objective: Based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), this study aimed to investigate the effect of high levels of systemic immune inflammation (SII) on hepatic steatosis by conducting a population-based cross-sectional survey of research subjects.
Subjects and methods: The population included 5,119 participants from the NHANES 2017-2020 cycle who were selected as the research subjects. We used (neutrophil count × platelet count)/lymphocyte count as the formula for calculating SII. The formula for calculating HSI levels was 8 × the ratio of [alanine aminotransferase (ALT) / aspartate aminotransferase (AST)] + body mass index (BMI) + 2 (with diabetes mellitus) + 2 (for women). HSI=36 was taken as the cut-off value for evaluating hepatic steatosis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the relationship between hepatic steatosis and SII in different models. Subgroup analysis was used to explore the relationship between different subgroups of SII and hepatic steatosis. Interaction analyses were used to assess the heterogeneity.
Results: Out of a total of 5,119 participants, hepatic steatosis was observed in 2,742 individuals. Multivariate logistic regression showed that the independent risk factor for hepatic steatosis was a high SII level (OR=1.33, 95% CI: 1.11-1.49, p<0.05). After adjusting for differences in BMI and HSI using propensity score matching (PSM), bariatric surgery also reduced SII risk.
Conclusions: There is a correlation between SII and hepatic steatosis, and bariatric surgery can effectively reduce SII risk in the hepatic steatosis population.