Association between Abnormal Liver Function and Risk Factors for Metabolic Syndrome among Freshmen

Abstract Purpose The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome among freshmen and to find the association between abnormal liver function and risk factors for metabolic syndrome in Taiwan. Methods A total of 515 freshmen who were less than 22 years of age and negative for hepatitis B surface antigen marker from one general university in North Taiwan participated in this study during their school entry health examination in September 2004. Demographic characteristics, body height, body weight, biochemistry values such as alanine aminotransferase, and risk factors for metabolic syndrome such as blood pressure, fasting blood sugar, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides, and waist circumference were recorded for statistical analysis. Subjects with elevated serum alanine aminotransferase levels were considered to have abnormal liver function. Results The prevalence of overweight, obesity, and metabolic syndrome among freshmen in Taiwan was 18.5%, 6.0% and 1.4%, respectively. The prevalence of abnormal liver function test was 6.2%. In multivariate logistic regression analyses, patients of metabolic syndrome were 94.5 times more likely (95% confidence interval [CI] = 10.5–852.5) to be associated with abnormal liver function after adjusting for gender and age. Among the risk factors for metabolic syndrome, enlarged waist circumference (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 10.1, 95% CI = 4.3–23.8), and elevated triglyceride (adjusted OR = 6.1, 95% CI = 1.6–23.5) were found to be statistically significantly associated with abnormal liver function. Conclusions Central obesity and elevated triglyceride level were the two risk factors for metabolic syndrome associated with abnormal liver function among freshmen in Taiwan.