Association of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and cardiometabolic risk factors with early atherosclerosis in an adult population in Southern Italy

Aim . The prevalence of risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases was inves-tigated in an adult population of the city of Cittanova, Southern Italy. Methods . The study was conducted among 992 randomly selected adults aged 18-75 years, between April 2009 and January 2011. Results . Prevalence rates of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), overweight, obe-sity, and metabolic syndrome (MS) were 24.8%, 41.5%, 27.1%, and 34.4%, respectively. For the components of MS, prevalence of central obesity was 47.4%, impaired fasting glucose (IFG) 34.7%; hypertension 53.7%, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) choles-terol 34.2%, and hypertriglyceridemia 27.2%. Conclusions . Hypertension, central obesity, IFG, low HDL cholesterol, hypertriglyc-eridemia, MS, and increased carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT) were sig-nificantly associated with NAFLD after adjustment for age and sex. With additional adjustment for body mass index (BMI), IMT and MS (depending on the prevalence ra-tio that was investigated), the positive association between the NAFLD and increased IMT lost statistical significance, while that with body mass index (BMI) and MS re-mained significant.