Concordance of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Associated Factors among Older Married Couples in China

Xueli Yuan; Wei Liu; Wenqing Ni; Yuanying Sun; Hongmin Zhang; Yan Zhang; Peng Yin; Jian Xu

doi:10.3390/ijerph20021426

Concordance of Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Associated Factors among Older Married Couples in China

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 12;20(2):1426. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20021426.

Authors

Xueli Yuan¹, Wei Liu², Wenqing Ni¹, Yuanying Sun¹, Hongmin Zhang¹, Yan Zhang¹, Peng Yin², Jian Xu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Elderly Health Management, Shenzhen Center for Chronic Disease Control, Shenzhen 518020, China.
² National Center for Chronic and Noncommunicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 100050, China.

Abstract

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common liver diseases which affects mainly middle-aged and older adults, resulting in a considerable disease burden. Evidence of concordance on NAFLD and lifestyle factors within older married couples in China is limited. This study aimed to evaluate spousal concordance regarding lifestyle factors and NAFLD among older Chinese couples. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study using data from 58,122 married couples aged 65 years and over recruited from Shenzhen, China during 2018−2020. Logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the reciprocal associations in NAFLD within couples after incremental adjustment for potential confounders. Results: There was a marked concordance regarding NAFLD among older married couples in our study. After adjustment for confounders, the odds of having NAFLD were significantly related to the person’s spouse also having NAFLD (1.84 times higher in husbands and 1.79 times higher in wives). The spousal concordance of NAFLD was similar, irrespective of gender. Couples with both a higher educational level and abdominal obesity were more likely to have a concordance of NAFLD compared to couples with both a lower educational level and no abdominal obesity, respectively (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Our results indicated that health care professionals should bear in mind the marked spousal concordance with respect to risk factors and NAFLD for the prevention and early detection of the highly prevalent disease in older Chinese adults.

Keywords: lifestyle; non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; older couples; risk factors; spousal concordance.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
China / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Humans
Middle Aged
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease* / complications
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease* / epidemiology
Obesity / complications
Risk Factors
Spouses

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Science and Technology Planning Project of Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, China (grant no. KCXFZ20201221173600001), National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 82273631), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, China (grant no. JCYJ20220531094410024), the Shenzhen Medical Key Discipline Construction Fund (grant no. SZXK065), Sanming Project of Medicine in Shenzhen (grant no. SZSM201811093), and the Medical Scientific Research Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (grant no. A2022082).