A combined association of serum uric acid, alanine aminotransferase and waist circumference with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease: a community-based study

• Published in: PeerJ (San Francisco, CA) Vol. 10; p. e13022
• Main Authors: Wang, Min, Wang, Minxian, Zhang, Ru, Zhang, Liuxin, Ding, Yajie, Tang, Zongzhe, Fan, Haozhi, Wang, Hongliang, Zhang, Wei, Chen, Yue, Wang, Jie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States PeerJ. Ltd 04-03-2022; PeerJ, Inc; PeerJ Inc
• Subjects: Alanine; Alanine aminotransferase (ALT); Alanine Transaminase; Alcohol use; Amino acids; Blood pressure; Body mass index; D-Alanine Transaminase; Demography; Diabetes and Endocrinology; Electrical equipment and supplies industry; Epidemiology; Fatty liver; Gastroenterology and Hepatology; Hepatitis; Humans; Insulin resistance; Liver diseases; Medical research; Medicine, Experimental; Metabolic Sciences; Metabolism; Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - diagnosis; Normal distribution; Obesity; Risk assessment; Risk assessment model; Risk Factors; Serum uric acid (SUA); Uric Acid; Variables; Variance analysis; Waist Circumference; Waist circumference (WC); United States; China; United States > US; Serum uric acid (SUA); Risk assessment model; Waist circumference (WC); Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); Alanine aminotransferase (ALT)
• ISSN: 2167-8359; 2167-8359
• DOI: 10.7717/peerj.13022

Increasing evidence has supported that serum uric acid (SUA), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and waist circumference (WC) are associated with the occurrence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, the combined role of these factors in early screening of NAFLD has not been investigated. We aimed to de lineate this role in a community-based population.
Binary logistic regression was used to explore the correlations of SUA, ALT and WC with NAFLD risk. The goodness of fit and discriminative ability of the model were evaluated by the Hosmer-Lemeshow test and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), respectively.
Logistic regression analysis indicated that elevated SUA (adjusted odds ratio (OR) = 2.44, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.76-3.38]), ALT (adjusted OR = 4.98, 95% CI [3.41-7.27]) and WC (adjusted OR = 3.22, 95% CI [2.01-5.16]) were facilitating factors for incident NAFLD after fully adjusted for related confounders. In addition, the risk of NAFLD followed linear trend s with increasing levels of these three indicators (all
< 0.001). The risk assessment model consisting of SUA, ALT, WC and demographics showed useful discrimination by AUROC being 0.825 (95% CI [0.811-0.838]) and good performance of calibration (
= 0.561).
SUA, ALT and WC were all associated with NAFLD, independent of known risk factors. The simple model composed of these indicators showed good performance in the Chinese population, which may be applicable for appraisal of NAFLD risk in primary healthcare.