TY - JOUR T1 - Associations of chronic diarrhoea with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and obesity-related disorders among US adults JF - BMJ Open Gastroenterology JO - BMJ Open Gastro DO - 10.1136/bmjgast-2019-000322 VL - 6 IS - 1 SP - e000322 AU - Andrea Shin AU - Huiping Xu AU - Thomas F Imperiale Y1 - 2019/08/01 UR - http://bmjopengastro.bmj.com//content/6/1/e000322.abstract N2 - Mechanisms explaining observed associations between diarrhoea and obesity or increased body mass index (BMI) are unclear.Objective To assess associations of bowel patterns with BMI, metabolic syndrome (MS), non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and other obesity-related disorders.Design We performed a cross-sectional analysis of data from adults who completed bowel health questions for the 2005 to 2010 cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Relationships were examined using multinomial logistic regression. Confounding effects of demographics, smoking, alcohol and BMI were examined by sequential modelling.Results Among 13 413 adults, weighted prevalence rates of constipation and diarrhoea were 8.9% and 6.6%, respectively. Mean BMI was associated with bowel patterns (p<0.001), and was higher with diarrhoea (30.3 kg/m2) versus normal bowel patterns (28.6 kg/m2) and with diarrhoea versus constipation (27.8 kg/m2). NAFLD was more prevalent (ORs, 95% CI) in diarrhoea versus normal bowel patterns (OR=1.34, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.78) or constipation (OR=1.45, 95% CI 1.03, 2.03) in adjusted analyses. The higher prevalence of MS in diarrhoea versus constipation (OR=1.27, 95% CI 0.97 to 1.67) was not independent of BMI.Conclusions These findings suggest an association between diarrhoea and NAFLD that is independent of BMI. ER -