Non-alcoholic fatty liver degree and long-term risk of incident inflammatory bowel disease: A large-scale prospective cohort study

Abstract Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have shown similar worsening epidemic patterns globally and shared various overlapping pathophysiological mechanisms. However, evidence on the relationship between NAFLD and IBD risk is lacking. We aimed to investigate the associations between long-term risk of incident IBD and NAFLD in a large prospective cohort. Methods: Participants from the United Kingdom Biobank cohort (https://biobank.ndph.ox.ac.uk/) who were free of IBD and alcoholic liver disease at baseline were enrolled. Baseline non-alcoholic fatty liver degree was measured by the well-established fatty liver index (FLI). The outcomes of interest included incident IBD, ulcerative colitis (UC), and Crohn's disease (CD). Multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression was used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results: Among 418,721 participants (mean FLI: 48.11 ± 30.11), 160,807 (38.40%) participants were diagnosed as NAFLD at baseline. During a median of 12.4 years' follow-up, 2346 incident IBD cases (1545 UC, 653 CD, and 148 IBD-unclassified) were identified. Due to limited events, those IBD-unclassified were combined in UC or CD when examining the associated risk of UC or CD, separately. Compared with the lowest quartile of FLI, the highest quartile showed a separately 36.00%, 25.00%, and 58.00% higher risk of incident IBD (HR Q4 vs. Q1 = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.19–1.55, P trend <0.001), UC (HR Q4 vs. Q1 = 1.25, 95% CI: 1.07–1.46, P trend = 0.047), and CD (HR Q4 vs. Q1 = 1.58, 95% CI: 1.26–1.97, P trend <0.001) after multivariable adjustment. Compared with non-NAFLD, NAFLD participants had a significantly higher risk of incident IBD (HR = 1.13, 95% CI: 1.04–1.24) and CD (HR = 1.36, 95% CI: 1.17–1.58). Conclusions: Higher degree of non-alcoholic fatty liver is associated with increased risk of incident IBD. Interventions aimed at improving NAFLD may be a potential targeted strategy for the detection and treatment of IBD.