Epidemiological survey of prevalence of fatty liver disease and its risk factors in urban population of northeast China

Objective To investigate the epidemiological features and the risk factors of fatty liver among adult residents in the northeast China.Methods A total of 15 635 cases with complete information in our physical examination center from January 2009 to December 2009 were included in this study.In the 15 635,9 037 were males and 6 598 were females,male/female ratio was 1.37∶1,age ranged from 16 to 95 years old with a mean age of(47.85±13.21)years.Body mass index(BMI),blood pressure(BP),blood lipids(TC,TG,LDL-C,HDL-C),fasting blood glucose(FBG),uric acid(UA),routine blood examination(WBC,RBC,HGB,PLT),liver function were performed.The prevalence of fatty liver disease was determined in different gender and age groups.Results Fatty liver was detected in 5 955 cases(38.1%) by abdominal ultrasound test.Males had a higher prevalence than females(48.8% vs 23.4%,χ2=1039.853,P0.001).The total prevalence of fatty liver in males aged 30~69 years was over 50% with a highest prevalence in 40~49 years population(55.2%).For females,the prevalence was less than 10% in population aged less than 39 years,however,the percentage was over 35% in more than 50 years old population.Females among 60~69 years had the highest prevalence,which even exceeded males at the same age(43.4% vs 40.5%),and the same trend showed in aged more than 70 years group(35.5% vs 28.3%,χ2=7.670,P0.006).The prevalence of overweight and obesity in non-fatty liver subjects were 35.6% and 7.5%,while 51.0% and 36.8% in the fatty liver subjects.In fatty liver group,the mean level of blood pressure,fasting blood glucose and total triglyceride(TG) were higher,while the mean level of high density lipoprotein cholesterol(HDL-C) was lower(P0.001).Compared with non-fatty liver group,the mean BMI,systolic blood pressure(SBP),TG,FBG,gamma-glutamyltransferase(GGT),and alanine aminotransferase(ALT) were much higher by univariate analysis,while HDL-C was lower(t=47.174,P0.001).Multiple regression analysis showed that BMI,TG,UA,FBG,diastolic blood pressure(DBP),cholesterol were risk factors for fatty liver(OR: 3.590,1.936,1.567,1.508,1.346 and 1.177,respectively).Conclusion There was obviously different in prevalence of fatty liver disease among different age groups both in males and females in urban population of northeast China.The components of the metabolic syndrome and the increasing of UA are strongly associated with fatty liver disease.