Analysis Of Risk Factors For Nonalcoholic Fatty-Liver Disease In Hepatitis B Virus Infection: A Case–Control Study

Abstract

Ghodsiyeh Azarkar,1 Zahra Doosti,2 Freshteh Osmani,3 Masood Ziaee1 1Infectious Diseases Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran; 2Infectious Diseases and Tropical medicine Research center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran; 3Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Health, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, IranCorrespondence: Masood ZiaeeInfectious Diseases Research Center, Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Ghafari Street, Birjand, South Khorasan 9717853577, IranTel [phone]Fax [phone]Email [email protected]: Nonalcoholic fatty-liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. Although NAFLD has been studied extensively, potential risk factors for NAFLD among chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and their comparison with healthy individuals have remained understudied in Iran. As such, we examined the association between HBV infection and the development of NAFLD in two groups.Methods: A case–control study was done on 376 CHB patients and 447 healthy subjects randomly selected from Birjand, South Khorasan province, Iran. We used logistic regression to estimate adjusted ORs with 95% CIs for incidence of NAFLD. Potential risk factors for NAFLD were evaluated while adjusting for age, sex, marital status, and educational level. Also, χ2 was used to compare demographic characteristics between the two groups.Results: A total of 373 CHB patients (mean age 40.1±12.9 years) versus 447 individuals in the control group (mean age 39.8±13.9 years) were included in this study (p=0.337). Liver characteristics were found to be significantly different in CHB and healthy groups (p<0.05). According to the results obtained from logistic regression, the adjusted OR (95% CI) for NAFLD incidence of comparing HBsAg-positive to HBsAg-negative participants was 0.62 (0.45–0.84).Conclusion: The results suggested that HBsAg seropositivity was associated with lower risk of developing NAFLD. This study also revealed that mild cases of fatty liver in carriers of hepatitis B are more common than in healthy subjects. However, moderate and severe cases of this condition are more common in healthy people than in hepatitis B carriers.Keywords: NAFLD, metabolic syndrome, liver diseases, hepatitis B

Keywords

• NAFLD
• Metabolic Syndrome
• Liver diseases
• Hepatitis B