Environmental Exposure to Cooking Oil Fume and Fatty Liver Disease

Background: Evidence on effect of cooking oil fume, which contains numerous carcinogens, on development of fatty liver disease is limited. The present study aims to investigate the association between exposure to cooking oil fume and the risk of fatty liver disease. Method: A total of 55959 participants aged between 40 and 75 years old participated in a community-based survey in Ningbo, China. Information on exposure to cooking oil fume and fatty liver disease were collected by face-to-face interview. Stratified analysis was used with participants being divided into two groups according to gender. Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to investigate the association between cooking oil fume exposure and fatty liver risk. Furthermore, ordered logistic regression was conducted to investigate the association between cooking oil fume exposure and the severity of fatty liver disease. Results: : Fatty liver disease prevalence was 8.79% in none oil fume exposure group, 10.52% in light oil fume exposure group, 23.47% in moderate oil fume exposure group and 41.45% in heavy oil fume exposure group. After adjusting for confounding factors, participants in the light, moderate and heavy cooking oil fume exposure groups all had significantly higher odds ratios as compared with participants in the none oil fume exposure group. In addition, an interaction effect between cooking oil fume exposure and gender on the prevalence and severity of fatty liver disease was observed. Females with heavyoil fume exposure had the highest odds ratios of fatty liver disease and severer disease extent. In the stratified analysis, compared to participants in the smokeless group, males and females in light, moderate and heavy cooking oil fume exposure groups all had significantly higher risk of fatty liver disease and severer disease extent, while participants with heavier cooking oil fume exposure tended to have higher risk of fatty liver disease and severer disease extent. Conclusion: Exposure to cooking oil fume is associated with incident and severity of fatty liver disease in 40-75 years old Chinese. The associations might be dose-responsive. In addition, heavy oil fume exposure and female sex might have a synergistic effecton incident and severity of fatty liver disease.