Association between obesity, hypertriglyceridemia and low hepatitis B viral load

• Published in: International Journal of Obesity 2013-03, Vol.37 (3), p.410-415
• Main Authors: Chiang, C-H, Yang, H-I, Jen, C-L, Lu, S-N, Wang, L-Y, You, S-L, Su, J, Iloeje, U H, Chen, C-J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 692/699/255/234/2513/1549; 692/699/2743/393; 692/699/317; 692/700/478; Age; Alanine Transaminase - blood; Animal models in research; Antigens; Biological and medical sciences; Body mass index; Care and treatment; Cross-Sectional Studies; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Disorders of blood lipids. Hyperlipoproteinemia; DNA; DNA, Viral; Epidemiology; Female; Females; Gender; Gene expression; Health Promotion and Disease Prevention; Hepatitis; Hepatitis B; Hepatitis B - blood; Hepatitis B - epidemiology; Hepatitis B - immunology; Hepatitis B e Antigens - blood; Hepatitis B virus; Hepatitis B virus - immunology; Hepatitis B virus - isolation & purification; Hospitals; Human viral diseases; Humans; Hyperlipidemia; Hypertension; Hypertriglyceridemia - blood; Hypertriglyceridemia - epidemiology; Hypertriglyceridemia - immunology; Infectious diseases; Internal Medicine; Liver cancer; Liver cirrhosis; Male; Medical sciences; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Metabolic Diseases; Metabolic syndrome; Middle Aged; Obesity; Obesity, Abdominal - blood; Obesity, Abdominal - epidemiology; Obesity, Abdominal - immunology; Obesity, Morbid - blood; Obesity, Morbid - epidemiology; Obesity, Morbid - immunology; Odds Ratio; original-article; Prevalence; Public Health; Research centers; Risk Factors; Taiwan - epidemiology; Triglycerides; Viral diseases; Viral hepatitis; Viral Load
• ISSN: 0307-0565; 1476-5497
• DOI: 10.1038/ijo.2012.63

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the metabolic risk factors of high hepatitis B viral load. Design: Large-scale, community-based cross-sectional study. Subjects: A total of 3587 hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected participants without liver cirrhosis at study entry were investigated. High HBV viral load was defined as a serum level ⩾10 4 copies per ml for hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) seronegatives or ⩾10 8 copies per ml for HBeAg seropositives. Results: Among HBeAg seropositives ( n =545), high HBV viral load was reversely associated with extreme obesity (odds ratio (OR), 0.30; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.13–0.68; P =0.004) or central obesity (OR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.34–0.82; P =0.004) after adjustment for gender, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperuricemia and history of hypertension. High HBV viral load remained significantly inversely associated with extreme obesity (OR, 0.17; 95% CI, 0.05–0.63; P =0.008) and central obesity (OR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.25–0.78; P =0.005) in male HBeAg-seropositive participants in stratification analyses by gender. Among HBeAg seronegatives ( n =3042), however, high HBV viral load was inversely associated with hypertriglyceridemia (OR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.61–0.89, P =0.002) after adjustment for age, gender, high serum alanine aminotransferase level, and extreme obesity or central obesity. High HBV viral load was still inversely associated with hypertriglyceridemia in both female (OR, 0.70; 95% CI, 0.50–0.97; P =0.041) and male (OR, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.60–0.94; P =0.011) HBeAg-seronegative participants. Conclusion: Extreme obesity and central obesity were associated with a low prevalence of high HBV viral load in HBeAg seropositives, especially in men; while hypertriglyceridemia was associated with a low prevalence of high viral load in HBeAg seronegatives in both women and men.