Table 2.

Association of weight change patterns across adulthood with NAFLD in NHANES 2017–2018.

	Weight Change Patterns
	Stable Non-Obese	Early Adulthood Weight Gain	Middle and Late Adulthood Weight Gain	Revert to Non-Obese
Number of NAFLD	355	298	226	45
Age adjusted incidence rate (%)	23.82 (19.66, 27.98)	67.20 (58.75, 75.64)	54.57 (46.82, 62.31)	37.40 (27.85, 46.95)
Model 1, RR (95% CI)	1.00 (ref)	2.77 (2.21, 3.49)	2.33 (1.78, 3.05)	1.37 (0.95, 1.98)
Model 2, RR (95% CI)	1.00 (ref)	2.23 (1.73, 2.88)	1.98 (1.45, 2.71)	1.09 (0.70, 1.68)
Model 3, RR (95% CI)	1.00 (ref)	2.19 (1.64, 2.91)	1.92 (1.40, 2.62)	1.01 (0.62, 1.64)

Model 1 was adjusted for age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Model 2 was additionally adjusted for education level, family income–poverty ratio level, marital status, alcohol consumption and smoking status, and chronic diseases. Model 3 was further adjusted for leisure time physical activity level and HEI. Incidence rates were directly standardized to age distribution of entire study population.