Funded in part by Nutrition Research Foundation—DSM Research Fund
Ultra-processed food consumption and the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in the Tianjin Chronic Low-grade Systemic Inflammation and Health Cohort Study
Zhang S, Gan S, Zhang Q, Liu L, Meng G, Yao Z, Wu H, Gu Y, Wang Y, Zhang T, Wang X, Sun S, Wang X, Zhou M, Jia Q, Song K, Qi L, Niu K
International journal of epidemiology · 90 citations
Review labels
Neutral facts our review recorded about how this study was done. They describe method, never whether we like the result.
How it was studied
- Design
- Cohort study (indexed by PubMed)
- Studied in
- People
- Main outcome
- Clinical events such as disease or death
- Intake measured by
- Food frequency questionnaire
Who paid for it
- Funding
- Industry funded
- Government
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Company
- Nutrition Research Foundation—DSM Research Fund
- Government
- National Health Commission of China
- Government
- National Key Research and Development Project-Study on Diet and Nutrition Assessment and Intervention Technology
- Grants
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (81941024); National Natural Science Foundation of China (81,673,166); National Natural Science Foundation of China (81872611); National Natural Science Foundation of China (91,746,205)
Based on 4 listed funder(s).
Publication
- Published
- 2021-08-01 · Int J Epidemiol · vol. 51 · issue 1 · pp. 237–249
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Cited
- 120 citations · more than 99% of similar papers · 13.3× the field average
- Impact
- Top 10% most cited in its field
- References
- 50 works
- Access
- Paywalled
- Research areas
- Nutritional Studies and Diet · Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Keywords
- Medicine, Hazard ratio, Fatty liver, Body mass index, Confidence interval, Cohort study, Quartile, Internal medicine, Cohort, Prospective cohort study, Proportional hazards model, Environmental health, Disease
- MeSH
- humans, inflammation, diet, risk factors, cohort studies, prospective studies, adolescent, adult, aged, aged, 80 and over, middle aged, female, male, young adult, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
18 authors
From CN, US
- Shunming ZhangTianjin Medical University
- Shinan GanTianjin Medical University
- Qing ZhangTianjin Medical University General Hospital
- Li LiuTianjin Medical University General Hospital
- Ge MengTianjin Medical University
- Zhanxin YaoTianjin Medical University
Abstract
Background
Growing evidence supports a link between ultra-processed food consumption and human health outcomes. However, the association between ultra-processed food consumption and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is not known. We aimed to explore the association between ultra-processed food consumption and risk of NAFLD.
Methods
The prospective study included 16 168 participants aged 18-90 years from the Tianjin Chronic Low-grade Systemic Inflammation and Health (TCLSIH) Cohort Study. Information on ultra-processed food consumption was collected at baseline using a validated food frequency questionnaire. NAFLD was defined as the presence of sonographic fatty liver in the absence of significant alcohol intake (≥210 g/week for men and ≥140 g/week for women, respectively) and other liver diseases. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine the association between ultra-processed food consumption and risk of NAFLD.
Results
During 56 935 person-years of follow-up, we documented 3752 incident NAFLD cases. After adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, smoking, alcohol drinking, education, occupation, income, physical activity, total energy intake, personal and family history of disease and overall diet quality, the multivariable hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) of NAFLD across increasing quartiles of ultra-processed food consumption were 1.00 (reference), 0.99 (0.90, 1.08), 1.13 (1.03, 1.25) and 1.18 (1.07, 1.30), respectively (P for trend <0.0001). The hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) per one standard deviation increase in ultra-processed food consumption, equivalent to a 62.7 g/1000 kcal per day, was 1.06 (1.03, 1.09), P = 0.0001.
Conclusions
Our study indicates that higher ultra-processed food consumption is associated with a higher risk of NAFLD. This finding suggests that ultra-processed food, which is widely consumed worldwide, might be a modifiable dietary target to reduce the risk of NAFLD.
Abstract via Europe PMC. Copyright remains with the authors or publisher.
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