Aging is a risk factor of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in premenopausal women

Table 5 The relationship between menopausal status and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in 1247 women who completed follow-up examinations and received no hormone replacement therapy

	Premenopausal women (n = 855)			Postmenopausal women (n = 392)
	Normal US at both baseline and follow-up	Normal US at baseline and NAFLD at follow-up	P value	Normal US at both baseline and follow-up	Normal US at baseline and NAFLD at follow-up	P value
Number (% incidence of NAFLD)	823	32 (4)		368	24 (6)
Mean age ± SD, yr (% incidence of NAFLD)	42.2 (6.3)	45.5 (6)	0.004	55.7 (5.6)	55.7 (4.7)	0.951
Number (%) who met a criterion of metabolic syndrome
Body mass index	53 (6)	13 (41)	< 0.001	28 (8)	4 (17)	0.12
Glucose	18 (2)	5 (16)	0.001	19 (5)	3 (13)	0.14
Blood pressure	79 (10)	9 (28)	0.003	79 (21)	8 (33)	0.2
HDL-cholesterol	178 (22)	19 (59)	< 0.001	98 (27)	10 (42)	0.15
Triglycerides	18 (2)	7 (22)	< 0.001	25 (7)	4 (17)	0.091
Number (%) who met ≥ 3 criteria of metabolic syndrome	9 (1)	7 (22)	< 0.001	17 (5)	4 (17)	0.032
Weight gain, kg (SD)	0.2 (1.7)	1.4 (1.6)	< 0.001	0 (1.6)	1.3 (1.3)	< 0.001
Number (%) light-drinkers	406 (49.3)	14 (43.8)	0.59	214 (26.0)	10 (31.3)	1
Number (%) current smokers	42 (5.1)	3 (9.4)	0.23	38 (4.6)	0 (0.0)	0.4
Number (%) ex-smokers	88 (10.7)	6 (18.8)	0.15	54 (6.6)	1 (3.1)	0.5
Number (%) regular exercisers	151 (18.3)	6 (18.8)	1	81 (22.0)	4 (16.7)	0.78

US: Abdominal ultrasonography; NAFLD: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; HDL: High-density lipoprotein.