Journal of Hepatology and Gastrointestinal disorders
Open Access

Abstract

Are Hypothyroidism and Obstructive Sleep Apnea Independent Risk Factors for the Development of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease?

Al-abboodi Y

Background: Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is defined as the accumulation of fat in the liver so that it weighs more than 5% of the total liver weight. Over the past decade, there has been growing evidence in regard to the association between NAFLD/NASH and both thyroid dysfunction and OSA. Design/Method: A retrospective analysis was performed using the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database for 2010. The variables included in this study were identified using ICD9 codes for 2010. A Case-Control design was used to compare the cohorts. A binary and multiple logistic regression statistical tests were used to examine the prevalence and the relative risk of having NASH among people with hypothyroidism and OSA. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows. Results: Approximately 32,000 patients with NASH and randomly selected 28,000 without NASH were identified for the study. Within the NASH group, 4,097 (11%) were found to have coexisting hypothyroidism, and 4,213 (12.7%) patients of the Non-NASH group had hypothyroidism. Patients with hypothyroid disease has almost the same probability of having NASH compared to individuals without hypothyroidism (crude odds ratio is 1.1, adjusted odd ratio is 0.7, CI 95%, P=0.00). In the Nash group, 937 (2.5%) were found to have OSA, whereas (1.25%) 383 patients only have OSA in the Non-Nash group. People with obstructive sleep apnea have 2.3 higher probabilities to have NASH than people without history of sleep apnea (crude odd ratio is 2.3, adjusted odd ratio is 1.72, P=0.00, CI 95%). Conclusion: People with obstructive sleep apnea are almost two times more likely to have NAFLD than people without obstructive sleep apnea. On the other hand, Hypothyroidism was not found to be a risk for NAFLD.