Association between body mass index and fatty liver risk: A dose-response analysis

Abstract

Body mass index (BMI) is associated with fatty liver risk, however, the dose-response relationship between continuous BMI changes and fatty liver risk has not been clearly defined. In this study, a cross-sectional study was conducted and a total of 3202 individuals were included. Unconditional logistic regression and restricted cubic spline model were used to analyze the dose-response association of BMI with fatty liver risk. After adjusting for confounding factors (age, gender, hypertension, total cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, high-density lipoprotein, low-density lipoprotein, uric acid, homocysteine, creatinine, aspartate aminotransferase and alanine transaminase), overweight (OR = 3.55, 95% CI: 2.49–5.06, P = 2.79 × 10−12), obesity (OR = 7.59, 95% CI: 4.91–11.71, P = 6.56 × 10−20) were significantly related to fatty liver risk. Stratified by gender (male/female), age (<50 years/≥50 years), prevalence of hypertension (yes/no), the above association was still significant (P = 0.004 or lower). In dose-response analysis, BMI was statistically significantly associated with fatty liver risk in a nonlinear fashion (approximately J-shaped fashion, Pnonlinearity = 1.71 × 10−4 or lower) in the total population and all subgroups mentioned above. Findings from this dose-response analysis suggest that higher BMI (overweight/obesity) is an independent, dose-dependent risk factor for fatty liver, and prevention of fatty liver focusing on continuous changes in BMI should be noted.

New therapeutic strategies in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a focus on promising drugs for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

“…Additionally, it was approximately 50% higher in men and doubled in those with diabetes [8]. In line with these data, a recent study with 3202 individuals reported that higher BMI (overweight/obesity) is an independent, dose-dependent risk factor for fatty liver disease [9].…”

Plasma Krebs Cycle Intermediates in Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

“…Body mass index (BMI) is associated with fatty liver risk [18]. In this regard, we found a statistically significant BMI increase in the NAFLD cohort (Table 1), which became less apparent when only samples with glucose cut-off <100 mg/dL were included for the analysis ( Table 2).…”

The relationship between severity of liver steatosis and metabolic parameters in a sample of Iranian adults

“…Our findings demonstrated that the majority of the patients had grade I NAFLD and were overweight or obese. An increasing body of evidence indicates that BMI is an independent risk factor for NAFLD [12,13,20,21]. Results from a meta-analysis of 21 cohort studies demonstrated that subjects with elevated BMI had a 3.5-fold increased risk for NAFLD, and there was an obvious dose-dependent relationship between BMI and NAFLD risk [20].…”

“…Today, NAFLD is considered as a main chronic liver disease in Asia [10]. A number of studies found that higher body mass index (BMI) was associated with an increased risk of NAFLD [3,[11][12][13]. Moreover, abnormal lipid metabolism or dyslipidemia is one of the common risk factors for NAFLD and is related to cardiovascular mortality, which is the most common cause of death in these patients [14][15][16][17].…”