Associations between obesity and metabolic health with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in elderly Chinese

Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease（NAFLD） is closely associated with obesity. However, this association could be influenced by the coexisting metabolic abnormalities. This study aimed to investigate the role of obesity and metabolic abnormalities in NAFLD among elderly Chinese. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed among elderly residents who took their annual health checkups during 2016 in Keqiao District, Shaoxing, China. Results: A total of 3359 elderly adults were retrospectively included in this study. The overall prevalence of NAFLD was 28.7%. The prevalence of NAFLD were 7.14%, 27.92%, 34.80%, and 61.02% in participants with metabolically healthy normal weight（MHNW）, metabolically abnormal normal weight（MANW）, metabolically healthy obese（MHO）, and metabolically abnormal obese（MAO）, respectively. NAFLD patients in MHO group had more unfavorable metabolic profiles than those in MHNW group. Logistic regression analysis showed that sex, body mass index（BMI）, fasting blood glucose, and serum uric acid were the risk factors of NAFLD. Conclusions: Both obesity and metabolic health were significantly associated with NAFLD in elderly Chinese. Screening for obesity and other metabolic abnormalities should be routinely performed for early risk stratification of NAFLD.