| Background:The relation between hepatitis B virus?HBV?infection and fatty liver has been addressed by several observational studies,but their results remain controversial.Current HBV infection has been associated with a decreased risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease?NAFLD?in the Korean population.However,whether this association can be observed in the Chinese population remains unknown.Additionally,no study has investigated the association of past HBV infection with NAFLD risk.Objective:To determine whether current and past HBV infection were associated with a decreased risk of NAFLD in the Chinese population.Methods:A hospital-based case-control study was conducted in Chongqing,China.A total of 631 newly ultrasound-diagnosed NAFLD cases and 2357 controls were selected from 123243 consecutive patients admitted to a tertiary-care hospital between January 2015 and December2016.Multivariate logistic regression was employed to calculate adjusted odds ratios?ORs?and 95%confidence intervals?CIs?for determining the direction and magnitude of the association.A propensity score was developed for adjustment and matching.Subgroup analysis was conducted to identify potential effect modifiers.Results:The overall prevalence of current and past HBV infection in the studied population was 9.7%and 55.2%,respectively.In the fully adjusted model,current HBV infection was associated with a decreased risk of NAFLD?OR 0.64;95%CI 0.42–0.95?.A similar inverse association was observed in both propensity-score-adjusted?OR 0.58;95%CI 0.40–0.86?and propensity-score-matched?OR 0.61;95%CI 0.40–0.92?analyses.Such an inverse association was stronger in patients with hypertension than those without(Pinteraction=0.018).Any significant association between past HBV infection and NAFLD risk was not found.Conclusion:Current but not past HBV infection is associated with a decreased risk of NAFLD in the Chinese population.The corresponding biological mechanisms remain to be elucidated. |
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