Association Between Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Hospital-Based Study

Abstract 

Objective

The objective of this study was to assess the association between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and cardiovascular risk factors.

Materials and Methods

This was a hospital-based, cross-sectional study. We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of all the people who received periodic health examinations at one medical center in Taichung, Taiwan from 2001 to 2004. Subjects with alcoholism and those who were positive for hepatitis B surface antigen and hepatitis C virus antibody were excluded. In all, 3488 subjects were included for further analysis. The t test, c2 test and multivariate logistic regression were used.

Results

There were 1766 men (50.6%) and 1722 women (49.4%). The mean age was 49.4 ± 12.4 years (range, 20–87 years). The overall prevalence of NAFLD was 46.9%, with significantly higher prevalence in men than in women (55.4% vs. 38.3%, p < 0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the factors that were significantly related to NAFLD were male gender (OR, 1.81), generalized obesity (OR, 2.94), central obesity (OR, 2.12), hyperglycemia (OR, 2.05), hypercholesterolemia (OR, 1.32), hypertriglyceridemia (OR, 2.22), high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (OR, 1.29), low levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (OR, 1.53), and hyperuricemia (OR, 1.63).

Conclusion

We found that NAFLD is significantly related to cardiovascular risk factors and hyperuricemia.

Keywords:  Cardiovascular risk factors , Hyperuricemia , Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease , Obesity

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