Weight Change across Adulthood in Relation to Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease among Non-Obese Individuals

• Published in: Nutrients 2022-05, Vol.14 (10), p.2140
• Main Authors: Ding, Yuqing, Xu, Xin, Tian, Ting, Yu, Chengxiao, Ge, Xinyuan, Gao, Jiaxin, Lu, Jing, Ge, Zijun, Jiang, Tao, Jiang, Yue, Ma, Hongxia, Song, Ci, Hu, Zhibin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adults; Alcohol; Body mass; Body mass index; Body size; Body weight gain; Cholesterol; Disease prevention; Ethnicity; Family income; Fatty liver; Health risk assessment; Hispanic people; Hypotheses; Liver; Liver diseases; Middle age; Nutrition; Obesity; Population; Risk; Vibration; Weight control; Womens health
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu14102140

To investigate the associations of weight change patterns across adulthood with the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2017-2018 cycle, we performed a retrospective cohort study with 2212 non-obese participants aged 36 years old over. Weight change patterns were categorized as "stable non-obese", "early adulthood weight gain", "middle and late adulthood weight gain" and "revert to non-obese" according to the body mass index (BMI) at age 25, 10 years prior and at baseline. Vibration-controlled transient elastography (VCTE) was performed to diagnose NAFLD. Modified Poisson regression was used to quantify the associations of weight change patterns with NAFLD. Compared with participants in the "stable non-obese" group, those who gained weight at early or middle and late adulthood had an increased risk of NAFLD, with an adjusted rate ratio (RR) of 2.19 (95% CI 1.64-2.91) and 1.92 (95% CI 1.40-2.62), respectively. The risk of NAFLD in "revert to the non-obese" group showed no significant difference with the stable non-obese group. If the association of weight change and NAFLD was causal, we estimated that 73.09% (95% CI 55.62-82.93%) of incident NAFLD would be prevented if the total population had a normal BMI across adulthood. Weight gain to obese at early or middle and late adulthood was associated with an evaluated risk of NAFLD. A large proportion would have been prevented with effective weight intervention.