Association between aspirin use and the prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a cross-sectional study from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Publication/Presentation Date

11-1-2014

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Many basic mechanistic studies found that aspirin inhibited multiple pathways involved in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) development.

AIM: To investigate an association between aspirin use and NAFLD prevalence in the general US population.

METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III). We included 11 416 adults aged 20-74 years who underwent ultrasonography; of those, 2889 were identified as having NAFLD and 8527 as controls. Aspirin use during the month prior to interview was categorised as never use (0 times), occasional use (1-14 times) and regular use (≥15 times).

RESULTS: In the multivariate unconditional logistic regression analysis, regular relative to no aspirin use was inversely associated with prevalent NAFLD [odds ratio (OR) = 0.62, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.51-0.74; P for trend = 0.04], a finding that was primarily limited to men (OR = 0.32, 95% CI 0.23-0.45; P for interaction < 0.01) and those who were older (>60 years) (OR = 0.21, 95% CI 0.14-0.30; P for interaction < 0.01).

CONCLUSION: These findings, from the first human study to investigate an association of aspirin use with NAFLD, suggest that regular aspirin use (≥ 15 times per month) may be associated with a lower prevalence of NAFLD, primarily among men and older patients.

Volume

40

Issue

9

First Page

1066

Last Page

1073

ISSN

1365-2036

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

PubMedID

25176122

Department(s)

Department of Medicine

Document Type

Article

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