Waist Gain Is Associated with a Higher Incidence of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Korean Adults: A Cohort Study

BACKGROUND: We examined the relationship between changes in waist circumference (WC) and the incidence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). METHODS: A cohort study of 37,130 men and women were followed-up annually or biennially. Differences in WC between baseline and subsequent measurements were categorized in quartiles: first (WC loss), second (no change in WC as the reference), third and highest quartiles (WC gain). The presence of fatty liver was determined using ultrasound. Parametric Cox modeling was used to estimate the adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of the incidence of NAFLD. RESULTS: During 127,324.4 person-years of follow-up, 6249 participants developed NAFLD. Despite adjusting for possible confounders, the risk of development of NAFLD increased with increasing quartiles of WC change in a dose-response manner (p for trend < 0.001). Compared with the reference, WC loss was associated with a lower risk of NAFLD (men: aHR 0.79 [95% CI: 0.73–0.87]; women: 0.72 [0.63–0.81]), and the highest quartile (WC gain) was associated with a higher risk of NAFLD (men: 1.30 [1.19–1.42]; women: 1.48 [1.31–1.67]). CONCLUSION: Waist gain appears to increase the risk of developing NAFLD, independently of the baseline body mass index and WC.