Risk factor compositions of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease change with body mass index in males and females

// Long Wang 1,* , Jinghui Guo 1,* and Jianping Lu 2 1 Department of Gastroenterology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People’s Hospital, Shanghai, China 2 Health Examination Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People’s Hospital, Shanghai, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Long Wang, email: // Keywords : nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; body mass index; gender difference; risk factor compositions; nonalcoholic steato-hepatitis; Pathology Section Received : April 06, 2016 Accepted : May 20, 2016 Published : May 29, 2016 Abstract Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is highly prevalent and correlated with obesity. To evaluate the role of body mass index (BMI) and gender difference in NAFLD, 8817 general adult subjects underwent physical examinations and were divided into four groups: underweight, normal, overweight and obese. The risk factor compositions for NAFLD were evaluated in each group by gender. The percentage of subjects with NAFLD increased sharply from 0.4% in the underweight group up to 81.9 % in the obese group. BMI stratification showed distinct risk factor compositions associated with NAFLD in males and females according to BMI and improved the performance of NAFLD prediction models in each group. Triglycerides (TG), alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate transaminase (AST), and uric acid were steady risk factors for NAFLD in males. Total cholesterol (TC), TG, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), ALT, and uric acid were steady risk factors for NAFLD in females. TG, ALT and uric acid were common risk factors in both genders with high performance for NAFLD discrimination. Our data provide gender- and BMI-specific risk factor compositions that will facilitate individualised treatment and benefit NAFLD control and prevention.