OBJECTIVESTo investigate the influencing factors of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

METHODSA hospital-based case-control study was conducted in patients with NAFLD and controls without NAFLD in a hospital from January to August in 2007. All data were analyzed by SPSS 13.0 software.

RESULTSOne-way analysis of variance found that the two groups were significantly different in cigarette smoking, alcohol and tea comsumption, movement index, speed of food intake, frequency of social engagement, kinds of edible oil, marine products, family history of NAFLD, hypertension, higher blood sugar, abnormality of blood fat, higher level of ALT, higher level of AST, hyperuricemia, obesity, decrease of high density lipoprotein (HDL), and increase of low density lipoprotein. By non-conditional logistic stepwise regression analysis, 12 of 18 factors were used to construct a model, ten of which were the risk factors and two were protective factors of NAFLD. Risk factors included obesity (OR=6.35), hypertension(OR=3.82), dyslipidemia (OR=2.95), decrease of HDL (OR=2.85), hyperglycemia (OR=2.82), increase of ALT (OR=2.80), hyperuricemia (OR=2.35), HBsAg positive (OR=1.99), family history of fatty liver (OR=1.79) and frequently intake of marine products (OR=1.58), and protective factors included tea drinking (OR=0.72) and exercise (OR=0.90).

CONCLUSIONSThere are many influencing factors of NAFLD, and life styles are the key factors. Genetic background may also play some roles in NAFLD.