Association of dietary with metabolic associated fatty liver disease risk: a cross-sectional study

Background: Metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a common liver disease, and poor diet will increases the risk of MAFLD. The objective of this study was to evaluate the associations between dietary and MAFLD. Methods the physical examination data were collected from April 2015 through August 2017 at Nanping First Hospital (N = 3563). Dietary intakes were assessed using a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. The association between different diets and the risk of MAFLD was assessed by inverse probability weighted propensity score. Results Beverages and instant noodles were positively associated with MAFLD risk, adjusting for smoking, drinking, tea intake and weekly hours of physical activity ( OR adjusted = 1.568; P  = 0.044; OR adjusted = 4.363; P  = 0.001). While milk, tubers and vegetables were negatively associated with MAFLD risk ( OR adjusted = 0.912; P  = 0.002; OR adjusted = 0.633; P  = 0.007; OR adjusted = 0.962; P  = 0.028). In subgroup analysis, women who consumed more tubers ( OR 0.341, 95% CI 0.172–0.676) associated with greater reduction in the risk of MAFLD than men ( OR 0.732, 95% CI 0.564–0.951). Conclusions These findings suggest that increasing the intake of milk, tubers and vegetables, and controlling the intake of beverages and instant noodles may reduce the risk of MAFLD.