ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the prevalence rate of non-obese fatty liver disease and its influencing factors, and to provide a reference for the prevention and treatment of fatty liver disease. Methods A total of 23 545 individuals who underwent physical examination in Karamay Central Hospital from January to December 2015 and had complete data of abdominal ultrasound, body mass index (BMI), age, and sex were screened out to analyze the prevalence rate of fatty liver disease, and 7484 individuals with normal BMI who had complete data of triglyceride (TG), fasting blood glucose, and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) were further screened out to perform a multivariate analysis. The t -test was used for comparison of normally distributed continuous data between two groups, and the Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of non-normally distributed continuous data between two groups; the chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate independent influencing factors for non-obese fatty liver disease. Results In 2015, the prevalence rate of fatty liver disease was 30.2% (7116/23 545) among the individuals who underwent physical examination in Karamay Central Hospital. A stratified analysis based on BMI showed that the individuals with emaciation, normal BMI, overweight, and obesity had a prevalence rate of 0.8% (6/706), 9.3% (919/9899), 38.4% (3404/8870), and 68.5% (2787/4070), respectively (all P 0.05), while both of them had a significantly higher prevalence rate than the young individuals (14.5%/16.8% vs 6.0%, P < 0.05). Young and middle-aged male individuals had a significantly higher prevalence rate of fatty liver disease than their female counterparts ( χ 2 =99.40 and 43.29, both P < 0.001), while the elderly male individuals had a significantly lower prevalence rate than their female counterparts ( χ 2 =9.81, P =0.002). For the individuals with normal BMI, the individuals with normal TG had a prevalence rate of fatty liver disease of 5.0% (311/6273), while those with elevated TG had a prevalence rate of 26.8% (325/1211), with a significant difference between the two groups ( χ 2 =624.90, P < 0.001). The multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age, BMI, ALT, fasting blood glucose, TG, and serum uric acid level were independent influencing factors for fatty liver disease in individuals with normal BMI (all P < 0.001). Conclusion There is a relatively high prevalence rate of non-obese fatty liver disease among individuals undergoing physical examination in Karamay Central Hospital, and 61.5% of the patients with non-obese fatty liver disease have glucose or lipid metabolic disorders. Serum TG level may be used as a simple and effective screening index for non-obese fatty liver disease.