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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Nutr.

Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1647225

This article is part of the Research TopicEffects and Mechanism of Diet, Exercise and Lifestyle on Eye Health and DiseasesView all articles

The relationship between changes in alcohol consumption and hepatic steatosis among alcohol consumers: A large-scale population-based Biobank study

Provisionally accepted
  • 1The People’s Hospital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Nanning, China
  • 2Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Background: The relationship between changes in alcohol consumption and hepatic steatosis among alcohol consumers remains poorly understood. This study aimed to evaluate the association between changes in alcohol consumption and hepatic steatosis in a large population-based cohort of alcohol consumers. Methods: This study included 33,427 participants with reported alcohol consumption, categorized as mild, moderate, or heavy at baseline and imaging visits. Hepatic steatosis was assessed via magnetic resonance (MR) imaging during the imaging visit. Results: 9,131 (27.3%) participants were diagnosed with hepatic steatosis at imaging visit. After adjusting for confounders, mild drinkers who progressed to moderate (aOR 1.26, 95% CI 1.10–1.44) or heavy drinking (aOR 1.70, 95% CI 1.12–2.57) had elevated odds of hepatic steatosis compared to stable mild drinkers. Moderate drinkers who maintained moderate drinking (aOR 1.36, 95% CI 1.21–1.53) or progressed to heavy drinking (aOR 2.27, 95% CI 1.84–2.79) also showed increased risk compared to those who transitioned to mild drinking. Conversely, heavy drinkers who transitioned to moderate (aOR 0.58, 95% CI 0.47–0.72) or mild drinking (aOR 0.34, 95% CI 0.25–0.45) had significantly lower odds compared to stable heavy drinkers. Stratified analyses revealed that males, individuals under 65 years, those with higher BMI, and hypertensive patients were more susceptible to hepatic steatosis with increased alcohol consumption.

Keywords: Alcohol consumption, Hepatic Steatosis, Epidemiology study, Cross-sectional study, Biobank

Received: 15 Jun 2025; Accepted: 30 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Suosu, Luo, Liu, Liu, Tang, Xu, Deng, Qu and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Tengyan Wu, wutengyan@gxmu.edu.cn

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