Association between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease risk scales and metabolic syndrome scales in 418.343 spanish workers

Introduction: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and metabolic syndrome (MetS) are two very frequent cardiometabolic disorders that seem to be related. The aim of this study is to search for this relationship. Material and methods: Descriptive and cross-sectional study in 418343 Spanish workers in which the relationship between six NASH risk scales and three of MS was assessed. Results: The mean values and the prevalence of elevated values of the NASH risk scales are higher in people with metabolic syndrome with the different criteria. In the multivariate analysis we observed that the risk of presenting metabolic syndrome with the three criteria is greater the higher the value of the different non-alcoholic fatty liver disease risk scales. The analysis of the ROC curves shows that the areas under the curve are, in general, very high, with the highest values corresponding to the metabolic syndrome when the IDF criteria are applied with all the NAFLD risk scales. Conclusions: In our study the different NASH risk scales are quite useful in predicting the occurrence of metabolic syndrome, especially when using the IDF criteria.