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Background: People with prediabetes have an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes (T2D). Few studies have evaluated the influence of lifestyle factors on the risk of progression to diabetes and reversion to normoglycemia. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of T2D in a large cohort of workers with prediabetes, and to evaluate the influence of sociodemographic, clinical, metabolic, and lifestyle factors that affect the persistence of prediabetes and the progression to T2D. Methods: A cohort study of 27,844 adult workers (aged 20 to 65 years) from Spain who had prediabetes based on an occupational medical examination from 2012 to 2013. Prediabetes was defined as fasting plasma glucose (FPG) between 100 and 125 mg/dL. At the baseline evaluation, sociodemographic, anthropometric, metabolic, and lifestyle data were collected. At the 5-year follow-up, incident T2D was defined as an FPG of at least 126 mg/dL or initiation of an antidiabetic medication. Results: Among 235,995 initially screened workers, the prevalence of T2D was 14.19% (95% confidence interval (CI) 14.05 to 14.33) and the prevalence of prediabetes was 11.85% (95% CI 11.71 to 11.99). Follow-up data were available for 23,293 individuals with prediabetes. Among them, 36.08% (95% CI 35.46 to 36.70) returned to normoglycemia, 40.92% (95% CI 40.29 to 41.55) had persistent prediabetes, and 23.00% (95% CI 22.46 to 23.54) progressed to T2D. The risk for persistence of prediabetes and for progression to T2D increased with age, body mass index (BMI), triglyceride level, and less than 150 min/week of physical activity. An HbA1c level of 6% or greater was the strongest individual predictor of progression to T2D. Conclusions: Physical activity, diet, smoking, and BMI are modifiable factors that are associated with the persistence of prediabetes and the progression to T2D. The workplace is a feasible setting for the early detection of prediabetes and the promotion of lifestyles that can prevent progression to T2D.

Background Despite the extensive scientific evidence accumulating on the epidemiological risk factors for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), evidence exploring sex- and age-related differences remains insufficient. The present cross-sectional study aims to investigate possible sex differences in the prevalence of FLI-defined NAFLD as well as in its association with common risk factors across different age groups, in a large sample of Spanish working adults. Methods This cross-sectional study included data from 33,216 Spanish adult workers (18–65 years) randomly selected during voluntary routine occupational medical examinations. Sociodemographic characteristics (age and social class), anthropometric (height, weight, and waist circumference) and clinical parameters (blood pressure and serum parameters) were collected. NAFLD was determined by the validated fatty liver index (FLI) with a cut-off value of ≥ 60. The presence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) was assessed according to the diagnostic criteria of the International Diabetes Federation. Cardiovascular risk was determined using the REGICOR-Framingham equation. The association between FLI-defined NAFLD and risk factors by sex and age was evaluated by multivariate logistic regression. Results The prevalence of FLI-defined NAFLD (FLI ≥ 60) was 19.1% overall, 27.9% (95% CI 23.3–28.5%) for men and 6.8% (95% CI 6.4–7.3%) for women and increasing across age intervals. As compared to women, men presented worse cardiometabolic and anthropometric profiles. The multivariate analysis model showed that hepatic steatosis assessed by FLI was strongly associated with age, HDL-cholesterol, social class, prediabetes, diabetes, prehypertension, hypertension, and smoking status for both men and women. The association between diabetes and hypertension with FLI-defined NAFLD was stronger in women than in men at both univariate and multivariate analyses. Conclusions Men presented a higher prevalence of NAFLD than women across all age intervals, as well as a worse cardiometabolic profile and a higher cardiovascular risk. Nevertheless, the association between FLI-defined NAFLD and diabetes or hypertension was significantly stronger in women than in men, possibly indicating that the presence of a dysmetabolic state might affect women more than men with regard to liver outcomes.