Prevalence of fatty liver disease and its risk factors in the population of South China

Table 1 Age and sex-specific prevalence of fatty liver disease

	Total		Male		Female		P
	n	n (%)	n	n (%)	n	n (%)
7-	379	5 (1.3)	210	4 (1.9)	169	1 (0.6)	0.265
18-	349	20 (5.7)	129	14 (10.9)	220	6 (2.7)	0.002
30-	477	53 (11.1)	155	31 (20.0)	322	22 (6.8)	0.000
40-	667	101 (15.1)	193	46 (23.8)	474	55 (11.6)	0.000
50-	809	214 (26.5)	230	53 (23.0)	579	161 (27.8)	0.166
60-	551	151 (27.4)	277	65 (23.5)	274	86 (31.4)	0.037
70-	311	65 (20.9)	117	23 (19.7)	194	42 (21.6)	0.676
Total	3543	609 (17.2)	1311	236 (18.0)	2232	373 (16.7)	0.326

Table 2 Sex-specific prevalence in fatty liver disease subgroups

	n	Confirmed ALD n (%)	Suspected ALD n (%)	NAFLD n (%)	Total (FLD) n (%)
Male	1311	12 (0.9)	53 (4.0)	171 (13.1)	236 (18.0)
Female	2232	2 (0.1)	12 (0.5)	359 (16.1)	373 (16.7)
Total	3543	14 (0.4)	65 (1.8)	530 (15.0)	609 (17.2)
P		< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.05	> 0.05

FLD: Fatty liver disease; ALD: Alcoholic liver disease; NAFLD: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Table 3 Residence-specific prevalence in FLD subgroups

	n	Confirmed ALD n (%)	Suspected ALD n (%)	NAFLD n (%)	Total (FLD) n (%)
Rural	2047	11 (0.5)	27 (1.3)	227 (11.1)	265 (12.9)
Urban	1496	3 (0.2)	38 (2.5)	303 (20.3)	344 (23.0)
Total	3543	14 (0.4)	65 (1.8)	530 (15.0)	609 (17.2)
P					< 0.001

FLD: Fatty liver disease; ALD: Alcoholic liver disease; NAFLD: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Table 4 Serum levels and lipid profiles in FLD patients and controls (mean ± SE)

	n	TG (mmol/L)	TC (mmol/L)	HDL-C (mmol/L)	LDL-C (mmol/L)	FSG (mmol/L)
FLD	609	2.81 ± 2.55	5.52 ± 1.11	1.72 ± 1.25	3.06 ± 0.91	6.01 ± 2.68
Controls	2934	1.63 ± 1.59	5.19 ± 1.07	1.67 ± 0.57	2.90 ± 0.81	4.95 ± 1.56
P		< 0.001	< 0.01	> 0.05	< 0.01	< 0.01

FLD: Fatty liver disease; TC: Total cholesterol; TG: Triglycerides; HDL-C: High-density lipoprotein cholesterol; LDL-C: Low-density lipoprotein cholesterol.

Table 5 Exposure ratios of variables in adult FLD patients compared with controls

n	Male	Urban	Primary school and below	Extraverted character	Alcohol drinkers	Smokers
Total 3164	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)
FLD 604	232 (38.41)	344 (57.0)	245 (40.6)	214 (35.4a)	141 (23.3)	160 (26.5a)
Controls 2560	869 (33.9)	1140 (44.5)	783 (30.6)	787 (30.7)	457 (17.9)	553 (21.6)
χ2	4.295	30.282	22.112	4.966	9.619	6.665
n	Heavy tastes	Overweight	Obesity	Hypertension	WHR	WC
Total 3164	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)
FLD 604	208 (34.4)	478 (79.4)	120 (19.9)	287 (47.6)	531 (87.9)	432 (71.5)
Controls 2560	689 (26.9)	650 (25.5)	79 (3.1)	658 (25.7)	1469 (57.8)	558 (21.8)
χ2	13.616	616.708	235.812	110.141	189.387	560.357

^aP < 0.05 vs controls and all the others; P < 0.01 vs controls. FLD: Fatty liver disease; WC: Waist circumference; WHR: Waist-to-hip ratio.

Table 6 Multivariate regression logistic analysis for FLD (n = 3543)

Variables	β	SE	χ2	P	OR	OR 95% CI
Male	0.628	0.218	5.361	0.002	0.765	0.321-0.921
Urban	0.212	0.128	28.219	< 0.001	0.332	0.211-0.291
Education level	-0.351	0.105	11.124	0.001	0.704	0.573-0.865
Hypertension	0.362	0.158	5.277	0.022	1.436	1.055-1.957
BMI	1.234	0.130	90.488	< 0.001	3.435	2.664-4.430
WHR	0.811	0.228	12.648	< 0.001	2.250	1.439-3.518
WC	1.017	0.174	33.987	< 0.001	2.765	1.964-3.892
TG	0.623	0.158	15.535	< 0.001	1.864	1.367-2.540
FSG	0.788	0.129	37.187	< 0.001	2.200	1.708-2.835
Alcohol-drinking	0.373	0.212	3.112	0.078	1.452	0.959-2.198
Heavy tastes	0.307	0.169	3.286	0.070	1.360	0.975-1.895

FLD: Fatty liver disease; BMI: Body mass index; WHR: w-to-hip ratio; WC: Waist circumference; TC: Total cholesterol; FSG: Fasting serum glucose.