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Positive Association Between the Chinese Visceral Adiposity Index and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Lean Adults

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Abstract

Background

Chinese visceral adiposity index (CVAI) is a novel indicator that precisely evaluates visceral obesity and has been shown to be significantly associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in the general population. However, the relationship between CVAI and NAFLD in lean adults remains unclear.

Aims

This study aimed to explore the association of CVAI with NAFLD in a lean population and evaluate the diagnostic capability of CVAI for lean NAFLD.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted among 9,607 lean adults (body mass index < 24 kg/m2), who underwent their annual health examinations at the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine in 2021. NAFLD was determined by ultrasonography to the exclusion of other known etiologies.

Results

The prevalence of NAFLD was 16.4% in this lean population. CVAI values were significantly higher in participants with NAFLD than those without NAFLD and the CVAI quartile was positively associated with the prevalence of NAFLD, which was 0.4%, 6.0%, 19.4%, and 39.8% among the participants with CVAI in quartile 1 to 4, respectively (P for trend < 0.001). Logistic regression analysis found that CVAI was positively associated with the risk of NAFLD (adjusted odds ratio: 1.025, 95% confidence interval: 1.021–1.028; P < 0.001). Furthermore, CVAI had a significantly higher area under curve value for detecting NAFLD than other visceral obesity indices.

Conclusion

Our study showed that CVAI was positively associated with the prevalence and risk of NAFLD in lean adults, and CVAI showed the highest diagnostic ability for lean NAFLD.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82070585), and the Key Research and Development Program of Zhejiang Province (2020C03033).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 79 Qingchun Road, Hangzhou, 310003, China

    Shuxia Shen, Hangkai Huang, Jinghua Wang & Chengfu Xu

  2. Zhejiang Provincial Clinical Research Center for Digestive Diseases, Hangzhou, China

    Shuxia Shen, Hangkai Huang, Jinghua Wang & Chengfu Xu

  3. School of Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

    Zexi Tang

  4. Health Management Center, The First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China

    Chao Shen

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  1. Shuxia Shen
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Contributions

SS made major contributions in data analysis and manuscript editing. HH and JW analyzed the data and conducted data curation. ZT put forward many valuable suggestions for this paper. CS collected the data. CX revised the article and provided funding. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Chengfu Xu.

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Shen, S., Huang, H., Wang, J. et al. Positive Association Between the Chinese Visceral Adiposity Index and Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Lean Adults. Dig Dis Sci 68, 656–664 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-022-07787-z

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