Journal Article

Association of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease with incident dementia later in life among elder adults

Ahn, Joseph C, Kim, Won, Lee, Gyeongsil, Oh, Yun Hwan, Chang, Jooyoung, Jeong, Seogsong, Park, Sang Min, Son, Joung Sik, Kim, Sung Min, Lee, Dong Hyeon, Koo, Bo Kyung, Choi, Seulggie

2022

Overview

Background/Aims: Accumulating evidence suggests a link between non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and brain health. However, population-based evidence on the association between NAFLD and dementia remains unclear. This study was conducted to determine the association between NAFLD and incident dementia.Methods: The study population included 608,994 adults aged ≥60 years who underwent health examinations between 2009 and 2010. Data were collected from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database. NAFLD was assessed using the fatty liver index (FLI). A Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to determine the association between NAFLD and dementia.Results: During the 6,495,352 person-years of follow-up, 48,538 participants (8.0%) developed incident dementia. The participants were classified into low (FLI <30), intermediate (FLI ≥30 and <60), and high (FLI ≥60) groups. In the overall study population, the FLI groups were associated with a risk of dementia (P for trend <0.001). After propensity score matching, a low FLI was associated with a reduced risk of dementia (adjusted hazard ration [aHR], 0.96; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.93–0.98; P=0.002), whereas a high FLI (NAFLD) was associated with an increased risk of dementia (aHR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.02–1.08; P=0.001). A higher risk of dementia in the high FLI group than in the intermediate FLI group was attributed to Alzheimer’s disease (aHR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.01–1.07; P=0.004) rather than vascular dementia (aHR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.75–1.18; P=0.602).Conclusions: NAFLD was associated with an increased risk of dementia, which was attributed to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

• Publisher: Korean Association for the Study of the Liver,The Korean Association for the Study of the Liver,대한간학회
• Subject: Adults / alzheimer disease / Alzheimer's disease / Blood pressure / Body mass index / Brain health / Cholangitis / Cholesterol / Cognitive ability / Cohort analysis / Dementia / Diabetes / epidemiology / Exercise / Family income / Fatty liver / Hepatitis / High density lipoprotein / Hypertension / Ischemia / Liver diseases / Metabolic disorders / Metabolic syndrome / National health insurance / non-alcoholic fatty liver disease / Older people / Original / Population-based studies / Risk factors / vascular dementia / Womens health / 내과학