Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Observational Study
. 2022 Feb 21;12(2):e057820.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-057820.

Association between intrahepatic triglyceride content in subjects with metabolically healthy abdominal obesity and risks of pre-diabetes plus diabetes: an observational study

Qiaoyan Xu #  1 , Junfeng Zhang #  1 , Haiwei Han #  2 , Ning Chen #  3 , Fangfang Lai  1 , Yongwen Liu  4 , Caoxin Huang  5 , Mingzhu Lin  6 , Wei Zhang  7 , Shunqin Wang  8 , Changqin Liu  9   10 , Zhibin Li  11
Affiliations
Observational Study

Association between intrahepatic triglyceride content in subjects with metabolically healthy abdominal obesity and risks of pre-diabetes plus diabetes: an observational study

Qiaoyan Xu et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to evaluate the association of intrahepatic triglyceride (IHTG) content in subjects with metabolically healthy abdominal obesity (MHAO) on risks of pre-diabetes plus diabetes.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Setting: Lianqian community, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.

Participants: Among 1523 community-living healthy adults aged 40 years or older with abdominal obesity recruited at baseline, 428 subjects who underwent IHTG content measurement were selected.

Outcome measures: Risk of pre-diabetes plus diabetes.

Results: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was diagnosed as 203 (69.1%) in MHAO and 121 (90.3%) in metabolically unhealthy abdominal obesity (MUAO) (p<0.001). The prevalence rates of pre-diabetes plus diabetes were 81.1%, 88.8% and 90.9% across the tertiles of IHTG content (p=0.037). Both MUAO (vs MHAO) and NAFLD (vs non-NAFLD) were independently associated with increased risks of pre-diabetes plus diabetes, the adjusted ORs (95% CIs) were 10.90 (3.15 to 37.69, p<0.001) and 3.02 (1.47 to 6.20, p=0.003), respectively. Higher IHTG content was significantly associated with increased risk of pre-diabetes plus diabetes with the adjusted OR (95% CI) of per SD increase of IHTG content of 1.62 (1.07 to 2.46, p=0.024). And there was a significantly positive trend between increasing categories of IHTG content tertiles and excessive risks of pre-diabetes plus diabetes (trend test p value=0.011). Stratified analyses showed similar results on the associations of NAFLD and IHTG content with risks of pre-diabetes plus diabetes for subjects with MHAO but not for those with MUAO.

Conclusions: NAFLD and higher IHTG content were independently associated with increased risks of pre-diabetes plus diabetes in MHAO subjects. NAFLD or quantity of liver fat should be considered as additional criterion when defining and diagnosing MHO. Screening of NAFLD and intervention to reduce liver fat should be strengthened even for those seemly metabolically healthy obese.

Keywords: adult gastroenterology; general diabetes; hepatology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Study subjects’ selection diagram. IHTG, intrahepatic triglyceride.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Prevalence rates (%) of pre-diabetes and diabetes stratified by tertiles of intrahepatic triglyceride (IHTG) content in metabolically healthy abdominal obesity subjects. (B) Prevalence rates (%) of pre-diabetes and diabetes stratified by tertiles of IHTG content in metabolically unhealthy abdominal obesity subjects.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Saeedi P, Petersohn I, Salpea P, et al. . Global and regional diabetes prevalence estimates for 2019 and projections for 2030 and 2045: Results from the International Diabetes Federation Diabetes Atlas, 9th edition. Diabetes Res Clin Pract 2019;157:107843. 10.1016/j.diabres.2019.107843 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zheng Y, Ley SH, Hu FB. Global aetiology and epidemiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus and its complications. Nat Rev Endocrinol 2018;14:88–98. 10.1038/nrendo.2017.151 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Chatterjee S, Khunti K, Davies MJ. Type 2 diabetes. Lancet 2017;389:2239–51. 10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30058-2 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Legler J, Fletcher T, Govarts E, et al. . Obesity, diabetes, and associated costs of exposure to endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the European Union. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 2015;100:1278–88. 10.1210/jc.2014-4326 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. GBD 2015 Obesity Collaborators, Afshin A, Forouzanfar MH, et al. . Health effects of overweight and obesity in 195 countries over 25 years. N Engl J Med 2017;377:13–27. 10.1056/NEJMoa1614362 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms