Association between barium exposure and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in U.S. adults

There are very limited studies that have investigated the influence of environmental barium exposure on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in the general adult population. The purpose of the present paper was to examine any correlation between urinary barium levels (UBLs) and the risk of NAFLD. A total of 4,556 participants aged ≥ 20 years were recruited from the National Health and Nutritional Survey. NAFLD was defined as the U.S. fatty liver index (USFLI) ≥ 30 in the absence of other chronic liver disease. Multivariate logistic regression was conducted to inspect the correlation between UBLs and the risk of NAFLD. The outcome of adjusting covariates revealed a positive correlation between the natural log -transformed UBLs (Ln-UBLs) and the risk of NAFLD (OR: 1.24, 95%CI: 1.12-1.37, P