An official website of the United States government

Publication Information

PubMed ID
Public Release Type
Journal
Publication Year
2016
Affiliation
Department of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR.; Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN.; Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Duke University, Durham, NC.; Department of Pathology, Duke University, Durham, NC.; Department of Pathology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.; Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network Data Coordinating Center, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.; Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD.; Department of Pediatrics, Columbia University, New York, NY.; Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.; Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Duke University, Durham, NC.; Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Duke University, Durham, NC.
Authors
Klair Jagpal Singh, Yang Ju Dong, Abdelmalek Manal F., Guy Cynthia D., Gill Ryan M., Yates Katherine, Unalp-Arida Aynur, Lavine Joel E., Clark Jeanne M., Diehl Anna Mae, Suzuki Ayako

Abstract

Post-menopausal women with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are at an increased risk of hepatic fibrosis when compared with premenopausal women. Whether duration of estrogen deficiency in postmenopausal state dictates individual’s fibrosis risk remains uninvestigated. We aimed to assess the associations of age at menopause and time from menopause with fibrosis severity in postmenopausal women with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Data from 488 post-menopausal women with 1) histologic diagnosis of NAFLD and 2) self-reported information on age at menopause were analyzed. The associations of premature menopause (age at menopause of <40 years) and time from menopause (age at study enrollment - age at menopause, years) with fibrosis severity (stage 0–4) were assessed using multiple ordinal logistic regression models with and without adjusting for clinical confounders. Among the participants (age at menopause: 43.7 ± 8.6 years), women with premature menopause (29.3 %) were younger at enrollment (p<0.001) and used hormone replacement therapy (HRT) more often (p<0.003). After adjusting for age at enrollment, race, waist circumference standardized by body mass index, current smoking, current alcohol use, hypertension, diabetes/impaired fasting glucose, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance, and HRT, premature menopause was associated with an increased likelihood of having more severe fibrosis; adjusted cumulative odds ratio and 95% confidence interval (ACOR [95%CI]) was 1.9 [1.3–2.7], p=0.001, while time from menopause was directly associated with an increased likelihood of having more severe fibrosis (ACOR [95%CI] for 5-year unit=1.2 [1.1–1.3], p=0.002).