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

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.

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, χ ² was used to compare demographic characteristics between the two groups.

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).

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.