Prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in mental disorder inpatients in China: an observational study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is becoming the most common liver disease in China. However, the understanding of NAFLD prevalence among Chinese mental disorder inpatients remains insufficient. We aim to investigate the prevalence of NAFLD among mental disorder inpatients in Beijing, China. METHODS: In this observational study, we included 66,273 mental disorder inpatients between 2014 and 2018, including inpatients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depressive disorder and other mental disorders. Data were obtained from electronic health records of 19 specialized psychiatric hospitals in Beijing. NAFLD was defined by ICD-10 code, excluding other causes of liver disease. We calculated the overall and annual prevalence rates of NAFLD from 2014 to 2018, and compared NAFLD prevalence between sexes, age groups, mental disorders types, antipsychotics use, and comorbidities. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine risk factors associated with NAFLD. Subgroup analysis was performed in different mental disorder types. RESULTS: The prevalence of NAFLD was 17.63% (95% CI 17.34–17.92%) in mental disorder inpatients, increasing from 16.88% in 2014 to 19.07% in 2018. The NAFLD prevalence in participants with schizophrenia (22.44%) was higher than that in participants with bipolar disorder (17.89%), depressive disorder (12.62%), and other mental disorders (12.99%). Women had similar or even higher NAFLD prevalence than men after 50 years. Men, 50–59 years (aOR = 1.71), schizophrenia (aOR = 1.56), bipolar disorder (aOR = 1.47), antipsychotics use (aOR = 1.46), hypertension (aOR = 1.50), diabetes (aOR = 1.83), dyslipidemia (aOR = 2.50) were risk factors for NAFLD in mental disorder inpatients. CONCLUSION: NAFLD was common among Chinese mental disorder inpatients, and increased over years. The prevalence of NAFLD was higher among men, old women, inpatients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, antipsychotics, hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia. Fatty liver disease among mental disorder population warrants the attention of psychiatric specialists and health policy-makers. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12072-020-10132-z.