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Fatty liver index predicts the development of hypertension in a Japanese general population with and without dysglycemia

Hypertension Research volume 46, pages 879–886 (2023)Cite this article

Abstract

Fatty liver has been suggested to be associated with the development of hypertension. However, whether this association is related to glycemia has not been elucidated. Therefore, we investigated whether the fatty liver index (FLI) predicts the development of hypertension among individuals with and without dysglycemia in a general Japanese population. A total of 3114 participants (1036 males and 2078 females) without hypertension who underwent a Specific Health Checkup in the fiscal year 2013 were followed up until 2018. The participants were divided into six groups based on FLI tertiles (low, moderate, or high) and whether they had dysglycemia. We estimated the hazard ratios (HRs) of each group by sex using the Cox proportional hazard model. Models were adjusted for age, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, smoking, and alcohol consumption and further adjusted for systolic blood pressure (SBP). During the mean follow-up period of 2.8 years, 160 of the 3114 participants developed hypertension. Using the low FLI group with normoglycemia as a reference, the HR for incident hypertension was increased in the high FLI group with and without dysglycemia in both sexes after adjusting for confounders, except SBP (HR [95% confidence interval]: male: 1.52 (1.06–2.17) in normoglycemia and 2.05 (1.43–2.92) in dysglycemia, and female: 1.86 (1.43–2.42) in normoglycemia and 2.98 (2.19–4.07) in dysglycemia). Furthermore, in females, this association was observed after adjusting for SBP. We concluded that FLI was independently associated with an increased risk of incident hypertension in individuals with and without dysglycemia.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the staff at the Habikino City Municipal Office for their important contributions.

Funding

This study was supported by JST SPRING (grant no: JPMJSP2123) and Comprehensive Research on Cardiovascular and LifeStyle Related Disease from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: 22FA1006.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Dan Wu, Aya Hirata, Takumi Hirata, Yukiko Imai, Kazuyo Kuwabara & Tomonori Okamura

  2. Institute for Clinical and Translational Science, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan

    Takumi Hirata

  3. Habikino City Municipal Office, Osaka, Japan

    Mika Funamoto

  4. Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care, Keio University, Kanagawa, Japan

    Daisuke Sugiyama

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  1. Dan Wu
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Correspondence to Aya Hirata.

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Wu, D., Hirata, A., Hirata, T. et al. Fatty liver index predicts the development of hypertension in a Japanese general population with and without dysglycemia. Hypertens Res 46, 879–886 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41440-022-01161-2

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