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. 2022 Jul;28(3):510-521.
doi: 10.3350/cmh.2021.0332. Epub 2022 Mar 17.

Association of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease with incident dementia later in life among elder adults

Seogsong Jeong  1   2 , Yun Hwan Oh  3 , Seulggie Choi  4 , Jooyoung Chang  1 , Sung Min Kim  1 , Joung Sik Son  5 , Gyeongsil Lee  1   6 , Joseph C Ahn  7 , Dong Hyeon Lee  8 , Bo Kyung Koo  9 , Won Kim  8   10 , Sang Min Park  1   11
Affiliations

Association of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease with incident dementia later in life among elder adults

Seogsong Jeong et al. Clin Mol Hepatol. 2022 Jul.

Abstract

Background/aims: Accumulating evidence suggests a link between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and brain health. However, population-based evidence on the association between NAFLD and dementia remains unclear. This study was conducted to determine the association between NAFLD and incident dementia.

Methods: The study population included 608,994 adults aged ≥60 years who underwent health examinations between 2009 and 2010. Data were collected from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database. NAFLD was assessed using the fatty liver index (FLI). A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to determine the association between NAFLD and dementia.

Results: During the 6,495,352 person-years of follow-up, 48,538 participants (8.0%) developed incident dementia. The participants were classified into low (FLI <30), intermediate (FLI ≥30 and <60), and high (FLI ≥60) groups. In the overall study population, the FLI groups were associated with a risk of dementia (P for trend <0.001). After propensity score matching, a low FLI was associated with a reduced risk of dementia (adjusted hazard ration [aHR], 0.96; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.93-0.98; P=0.002), whereas a high FLI (NAFLD) was associated with an increased risk of dementia (aHR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02-1.08; P=0.001). A higher risk of dementia in the high FLI group than in the intermediate FLI group was attributed to Alzheimer's disease (aHR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.01-1.07; P=0.004) rather than vascular dementia (aHR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.75-1.18; P=0.602).

Conclusion: NAFLD was associated with an increased risk of dementia, which was attributed to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.

Keywords: Alzheimer disease; Epidemiology; Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; Vascular dementia.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest

The authors have no conflicts to disclose.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flow diagram for the inclusion of study population. ALT, alanine aminotransferase; AST, aspartate aminotransferase; γ-GT, γ-glutamyltransferase; HDL, high-density lipoprotein.
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See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

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