Table 7.

Baseline participant characteristics according to the development of NAFLD as measured by FLI

	Without NAFLD (N = 3390) Mean (SD) or median (IQR) or n (%)	With NAFLD (N = 434) Mean (SD) or median (IQR) or n (%)	p value*
Total bilirubin (µmol/l)	7 (5–9)	7 (5–9)	< 0.001
Questionnaire
Males	1298 (38.3)	253 (58.3)	< 0.001
Age at survey (years)	47 (12)	50 (12)	< 0.001
History of diabetes	18 (0.5)	5 (1.2)	0.115
Current and former smokers	2212 (65.3)	303 (69.8)	0.059
Alcohol consumers	2606 (76.9)	332 (76.5)	0.861
Physical measurements
BMI (kg/m2)	24.1 (2.7)	27.1 (2.5)	< 0.001
Waist circumference (cm)	81.5 (9.3)	90.9 (7.0)	< 0.001
SBP (mmHg)	122 (17)	131 (18)	< 0.001
DBP (mmHg)	71 (9)	75 (9)	< 0.001
Lipid, metabolic, inflammatory, liver, and renal markers
Total cholesterol (mmol/l)	5.40 (1.07)	5.80 (1.02)	< 0.001
HDL-C (mmol/l)	1.45 (0.39)	1.22 (0.32)	< 0.001
Triglycerides (mmol/l)	0.95 (0.73–1.26)	1.23 (0.96–1.61)	< 0.001
Glucose (mmol/l)	4.57 (0.72)	4.85 (0.76)	< 0.001
GGT (U/L)	18 (14–25)	26 (19–36)	< 0.001
ALT (U/L)	18 (14–23)	21 (16–28)	< 0.001
AST (U/L)	23 (20–26)	24 (21–28)	< 0.001
hsCRP (mg/l)	0.84 (0.38–1.96)	1.49 (0.75–3.05)	< 0.001
eGFR (ml/min/1.73 m2)	91.2 (15.0)	87.3 (15.0)	< 0.001
UAE (mg/24 h)	7.99 (5.84–12.30)	9.42 (6.53–14.61)	< 0.001

ALT alanine aminotransferase, AST aspartate aminotransferase, BMI body mass index, DBP diastolic blood pressure, eGFR estimated glomerular filtration rate (as calculated using the Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration combined creatinine-cystatin C equation), FLI fatty liver index, GGT gamma-glutamyltransferase, HDL-C high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, hsCRP high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, NAFLD non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

*Employed a two-sample t-tests for a difference in means for continuous variables and a Chi square test for categorical variables