Factors associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease grades detected by ultrasound at a screening center in Klang valley, Malaysia

Abstract EN

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a very common liver disease in the world, particularly in Western and developed countries.

It is rapidly growing in the Asia- Pacific region.

Objectives: This study was designed to determine the association between risk factors and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease grades among Malaysian adults.

Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional observational study design was prospectively carried out in this study.

Consecutive 628 respondents who attended for a medical checkup at urban health center had been recruited for the study.

All respondents had physical examination, blood tests, clinical assessments and abdominal ultrasound.

A structured self-administered questionnaire has been also used in this study in this survey.

Results: From total of 628 “health screened” subjects, 235 subjects (37.4%) were diagnosed to have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Female gender and Chinese race were predominant in our study population.

Of those with NAFLD, more than half subjects (63.4) had a moderate grade of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

The mean age of the study population was 54.54 ±6.69 years.

Differences of mean body mass index (BMI) and waist to hip ratio (WHR) were found to be significant among non-alcoholic fatty liver disease grades (P< 0.001).

Similarly, mean triglycerides (TG) and high-densiy lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) levels had significant differences among non-alcoholic fatty liver disease grades (P< 0.001 and P= 0.016, respectively).

Conclusion: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is common among urban Malaysian adult population.

Anthropometric measurements were a closely correlated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease grades.