The fatty liver index (FLI) and incident hypertension: a longitudinal study among Chinese population

BACKGROUND: Hypertension and nonalcoholic fatty liver both have been considered as the serious public health problems in recent years. However, the longitudinal association between hypertension and nonalcoholic fatty liver remains unclear in Chinese population. METHODS: This study was aimed to investigate the longitudinal association between nonalcoholic fatty liver assessed by fatty liver index and the incident hypertension among Chinese population and to evaluate the ability of FLI index, through comparing with the predictive value of other indexes. RESULTS: Four thousand six hundred eighty-six subjects (3177 males and 1509 females) were involved and followed up for 9 years. The subjects were divided into groups according to the fatty liver index. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression models were used to analyze the risk factors of hypertension. After 9 years of follow-up, 2047 subjects developed hypertension. The overall 9-year cumulative incidence of HTN was 43.7%, ranging from 36.0% (FLI < 30) to 75.3% (FLI ≥ 60) (P for trend < 0.001). Cox regression analyses indicated that nonalcoholic fatty liver assessed by fatty liver index was independently and positively associated with the risk of incident hypertension. In receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the ROC curve (AUC) of FLI was 0.701 (95% CI 0.686–0.716), which was larger than that of its components. CONCLUSION: The nonalcoholic fatty liver assessed by FLI independently predicted the incident hypertension among the Chinese population.