Association between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and the incidence of asthma in adults: Results from the Korean National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC) database

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Asthma and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are chronic diseases and are known to be associated with metabolic abnormalities. However, there is no research on the potential association between asthma and NAFLD. This study aimed to clarify the association between NAFLD and the incidence of asthma using fatty liver index (FLI), a surrogate marker of NAFLD, in a large population-based cohort. <b>Method:</b> We selected 160,603 healthy individuals without comorbidities from the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC) during 2009–2014. The association between FLI and asthma incidence was analyzed using multivariate Cox proportional hazards models. <b>Result:</b> During a median of 5.08 years’ follow-up, 16,377 subjects (10.2%) were newly diagnosed with asthma and categorized into three groups according to FLI. The cumulative incidence of asthma was higher in subjects with higher vs. lower FLIs (FLI &lt; 30 10.1% [13,744/136,094], 30 ≤ FLI &lt; 60 10.8% [1,986/18,373], FLI ≥ 60 10.5% [647/6,136], HR 1.25, 95% CI, 1.15-1.36). <b>Conclusion:</b> This study demonstrated that NAFLD as measured by FLI may influence the incidence rates of asthma in adults. Table. Association between fatty liver index and incidence of adult-onset asthma