Prevalence and risk factors associated with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis in patients with infection: A population-based study.

BACKGROUND

() is associated with the development of gastrointestinal disorders ranging from gastritis to gastric cancer. The evidence of the association between metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) and infection in the literature is scarce. Therefore, we aim to evaluate the risk of developing MASH in patients who have had a diagnosis of infection independently of any confounding variables.

AIM

To evaluate the risk of developing MASH in patients who have had a diagnosis of infection.

METHODS

This study used a validated multicenter research database of over 360 hospitals across 26 healthcare systems across the United States from 1999 to 2022. Multivariate regression analysis assessed the risk of developing MASH, adjusting for confounders including infection, obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and male gender. A two-sided value < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant, and all statistical analyses were performed using R version 4.0.2 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria, 2008).

RESULTS

A total of 79476132 individuals were screened in the database and 69232620 were selected in the final analysis after accounting for inclusion and exclusion criteria. Smokers (14.30%), patients with hyperlipidemia (70.35%), hypertension (73.86%), diabetes mellitus type 2 (56.46%), and obese patients (58.15%) were more common in patients with MASH compared to control. Using a multivariate regression analysis, the risk of MASH was increased in diabetics [odds ratio (OR): 3.55; 95%CI: 3.48-3.62], obese (OR: 5.93; 95%CI: 5.81-6.04), males (OR: 1.49; 95%CI: 1.46-1.52), individuals with hyperlipidemia (OR: 2.43; 95%CI: 2.38-2.49) and infection (OR: 2.51; 95%CI: 2.31-2.73).

CONCLUSION

This is the largest population-based study in the United States illustrating an increased prevalence and odds of developing MASH in patients with infection after adjusting for risk factors.