The relationship between Dyspepsia and Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A case-control study

Background and Objective: Non-alcoholic fatty liver is one of the most common non-infectious diseases in the liver, which is currently increasing prevalence in Iran and in the world. According to WHO recommendations for liver and related diseases, as well as identification of factors affecting non-alcoholic fatty liver, this study was conducted to investigate the association of Dyspepsia with non-alcoholic fatty liver. Material and Methods: This case-control study was conducted on patients referred to an ultrasound center in Isfahan, Iran during January to May 2018. In this study, ultrasound was used to diagnose non-alcoholic fatty liver and ROMEIII questionnaire for Dyspepsia diagnosis, and SPSS 21 software was used to analyze the data. Results: This study was performed on 190 subjects including 70 (37%) women and 120 (63%) men with an average age of 40 years with a standard deviation of 15 years. The results of this study showed that bloating (OR = 3.5, P-value = 0.001) and Dyspepsia (OR = 2.7, P-value = 0.002) is related to non-alcoholic fatty liver. Further analysis based on the decision tree showed that at the age of 29 years, having dyspepsia is a sign of a significant in the incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver. This means that at the age of 29, Dyspepsia can be a sign of non-alcoholic fatty liver. Conclusion: Given that the results of this study showed that dyspepsia is very effective in predicting non-alcohol fatty liver, especially at the age of 29 years, it can be used as a quick, inexpensive and effective method for identifying or Suspecting non-alcoholic fatty liver and also treating it.