Association of dietary phytosterols with prevalence of metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease in adult population of Northeastern China:An internet-based cross-sectional study
Jiayu Zhu
Jiaqi Zhang
Qi Yu
Liyan Liu
Rennan Feng
Abstract：Objective: The benefits of phytosterols have attracted growing interest, but their association with Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Fatty Liver Disease (MAFLD) has rarely been reported in population-based studies. This research aimed to investigate the correlation between dietary phytosterols and MAFLD. Methods: Phytosterols intake was evaluated using an internet-based dietary questionnaire targeted at the Chinese population. Conditional logistic regression models were employed to investigate dose-response relationships between phytosterol intake and MAFLD, as well as the potential preventive role of phytosterols. Restricted Cubic Spline (RCS) analyses were conducted to examine associations between phytosterols intake and MAFLD. Additionally, a quantile-based g-computation (qgcomp) method was applied to explore the combined effect of campesterol, stigmasterol, β-sitostelane, campestane, and β-sitosterol on MAFLD. Results: Significant inverse relationships were found between total phytosterols and MAFLD (OR, 0.19; 95%CI, 0.11-0.32; P<0.001), campesterol (OR, 0.22; 95%CI, 0.13-0.37; P<0.001), stigmasterol (OR, 0.17; 95%CI, 0.10-0.30; P<0.001), β-sitostelane (OR, 0.26; 95%CI, 0.16-0.45; P<0.001), campestane (OR, 0.23; 95%CI, 0.14-0.39; P<0.001), and β-sitosterol (OR, 0.17; 95%CI, 0.10-0.29; P<0.001). The qgcomp analysis showed a significant negative association between the five phytosterols and MAFLD (OR, 0.58; 95%CI, 0.50-0.67; P<0.001). Additionally, the qgcomp analysis revealed that the combination of these five phytosterols was inversely associated with MAFLD, with stigmasterol contributing the most (weight=0.70). Conclusion: Higher intake of phytosterols was associated with a reduced prevalence of MAFLD, with stigmasterol showing the most significant inverse relationship. Further research is needed to clarify the relationship between phytosterols and MAFLD.
Keywords：phytosterolsmetabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver diseaseNortheastern China
Publication Date：2025-03-30
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：8( 50-57 )