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
. 2022 May 20;14(10):2140.
doi: 10.3390/nu14102140.

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

Yuqing Ding  1 , Xin Xu  1 , Ting Tian  1 , Chengxiao Yu  1 , Xinyuan Ge  1 , Jiaxin Gao  1 , Jing Lu  1   2 , Zijun Ge  3 , Tao Jiang  1 , Yue Jiang  1 , Hongxia Ma  1   4 , Ci Song  2   4 , Zhibin Hu  1
Affiliations

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

Yuqing Ding et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Background: To investigate the associations of weight change patterns across adulthood with the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

Methods: 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.

Results: 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.

Conclusions: 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.

Keywords: NAFLD; population attributable fraction; weight gain.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The definition of weight change patterns.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Younossi Z.M., Koenig A.B., Abdelatif D., Fazel Y., Henry L., Wymer M. Global epidemiology of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease-Meta-analytic assessment of prevalence, incidence, and outcomes. Hepatology. 2016;64:73–84. doi: 10.1002/hep.28431. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Younossi Z., Tacke F., Arrese M., Chander Sharma B., Mostafa I., Bugianesi E., Wai-Sun Wong V., Yilmaz Y., George J., Fan J., et al. Global Perspectives on Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis. Hepatology. 2019;69:2672–2682. doi: 10.1002/hep.30251. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Younossi Z.M. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease—A global public health perspective. J. Hepatol. 2019;70:531–544. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2018.10.033. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Byrne C.D., Targher G. NAFLD: A multisystem disease. J. Hepatol. 2015;62((Suppl. S1)):S47–S64. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2014.12.012. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Adams L.A., Anstee Q.M., Tilg H., Targher G. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and its relationship with cardiovascular disease and other extrahepatic diseases. Gut. 2017;66:1138–1153. doi: 10.1136/gutjnl-2017-313884. - DOI - PubMed