Association of lifestyle with metabolic syndrome and non-Alcoholic fatty liver in children and adolescence

Introduction: Identification of the factors related to non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in
children and adolescents help us to know appropriate methods for prevention and control
of chronic diseases.
Methods: This cross-sectional and analytic study comprised 962 children and adolescents,
aged 6-18 years, in Isfahan in 2008. Variables related to life style and metabolic syndromes
related were determined and their relationship with non-alcohlic fatty liver disease were
analysed using Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) regression method,
using SPSS.
Results: The final obtained model with the omission of 13 low effect variables had 5
powerful and effective variables in which oil consumption, waist circumference, body
mass index and blood cholesterol level are factors that increase the probability of
nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. The age variable is an ablative variable with negative
coefficient in the final model. The relationship between body mass index as well as waist
circumference with nonalcoholic fatty liver were statistically significant (P<0.01).
Conclusion: This study confirms the appropriateness of the LASSO regression model for
analyzing non-linear variables and in the case where predictor variables are more than the
sample size. Moreover, it shows that, even among children and adolescents, lifestyle
habits are associated with fatty liver disease; it underscores the necessity of establishing
healthy life styles from the early life to prevent chronic diseases.