Prevalence of alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease among different occupations and associated metabolic changes: A hospital-based study

Abstract

The fatty liver disease (FLD) considered as major health problem worldwide but its prevalence related to occupation and lifestyle habits is seldom assessed. This research study was conduct to find out the occurrence of FLD among occupation and associated metabolic changes.In this hospital-based study total 328 patients were enrolled. The anthropometric measurement, radiological & clinical examination and biochemical estimation were carried out in all enrolled subjects. On the basis of abdominal sonography; the patients were categorized into three groups such as Normal (without liver disease), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and alcoholic fatty liver disease (AFLD). For comparison of continuous variables, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the means of study groups. A p-value <0·05 was considered as statistically significant. Mean BMI of NAFLD, AFLD and Normal subjects were 25.39±0.38, 20.13±0.3 and 19.47±0.25 respectively. AFLD group were found significantly higher (p<0.0001) level of liver enzymes markers such as AST, ALT, ALP, GGT, total bilirubin compared to Normal and NAFLD groups. Majority of labour belongs to AFLD (58.2%); whereas, highest frequency of NAFLD was observed in salaried group occupation (49.5%). Based on physical work activity, highest frequency (54.3%) of NAFLD patients were observed in sedentary workers group followed by AFLD (48.3%) patients were heavy workers. The occurrence of metabolic syndrome was statistically significant in NAFLD patients compared to AFLD (40% vs 29%, p=0.001). The occupation especially salaried & business class with sedentary lifestyle habits was increased risk to develop NAFLD; whereas, AFLD patients were majorly belongs to laborer occupation. Keywords: Fatty liver disease, Alcoholic fatty liver disease, Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, Occupation, Physical work activity.