Dietary Nutritional Supplements Are Associated with the Deterioration of Hepatic Fibrosis in Women and Individuals without Underlying Disease

Minsu Cha, Sangheun Lee () and Kijun Han
Additional contact information
Minsu Cha: Department of Emergency Medicine, International St. Mary’s Hospital, Catholic Kwandong University College of Medicine, Incheon 22711, Republic of Korea
Sangheun Lee: Institute of Health and Medical Convergence Research, International St. Mary’s Hospital, Catholic Kwandong University College of Medicine, Incheon 22711, Republic of Korea
Kijun Han: Department of Internal Medicine, International St. Mary’s Hospital, Catholic Kwandong University College of Medicine, Incheon 22711, Republic of Korea

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 10, 1-11

Abstract: Despite the growing societal interest in the health benefits of dietary nutritional supplements, their safety and efficacy remain unclear. We aimed to investigate the correlation between hepatic fibrosis and the consumption of dietary nutritional supplements. This study utilized data from the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey spanning the period from 2014 to 2022. Significant fibrosis was defined as a fibrosis index based on four factors (FIB-4) ≥1.45 and an aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI) ≥0.30. Adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. In a study involving 30,639 participants (supplement consumers [ n = 17,772] and non-consumers [ n = 12,867]), dietary nutritional supplement consumption was associated with alanine aminotransferase (ALT) elevation and increased hepatic fibrosis biomarkers (APRI and FIB-4). Dietary nutritional supplement consumption was independently linked to ALT elevation (AOR, 1.11; 95% CI, 1.04–1.18), FIB-4 (AOR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.00–1.15), and APRI (AOR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.07–1.21). This association was particularly significant in women and subgroups of people who were not diabetic or hypertriglyceridemic. In our comprehensive analysis, the consumption of dietary nutritional supplements was possibly associated with hepatic fibrosis, particularly in specific subgroups. Given the limitations of this study, these findings are not considered definitive conclusions; however, they serve as valuable preliminary data for future research.

Keywords: dietary nutritional supplements; hepatic fibrosis; FIB-4; APRI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/10/1298/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/10/1298/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:10:p:1298-:d:1487984

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().