Inflammatory diet ups NAFLD risk, especially in men

A dietary pattern with high inflammatory potential appears to increase the risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), reports a study, adding that this association is greater in men.

“Diet is an important factor that can exacerbate or ameliorate chronic inflammation, which has been implicated in the pathogenesis of NAFLD,” the authors said.

A total of 12,877 participants aged >18 years (mean age 39.4 years) were included in this prospective cohort study. The researchers assessed dietary intake at baseline using food frequency questionnaires. Using white blood cell count as the inflammatory marker, they developed a dietary inflammatory potential score by reduced rank regression and stepwise linear regression.

Abdominal ultrasound done during annual health checkups was used to identify NAFLD. Finally, the association between the dietary inflammatory potential score and the risk of NAFLD was estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression models.

Overall, 2,744 first incident cases of NAFLD occurred during a median follow-up of 4.2 years.

After adjusting for potential confounders, the multivariable hazard ratios for NAFLD across increasing quartiles of the dietary inflammatory potential score were 1.00 (reference), 1.01 (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 0.90‒1.13), 1.15 (95 percent CI, 1.03‒1.29), and 1.26 (95 percent CI, 1.13‒1.41; p_trend<0.0001). This association was more prominent among men than women (p_interaction=0.02).

“Such findings provide the support that inflammation may be a potential mechanism linking diet to the risk of NAFLD,” the researchers said.