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Higher METS-VF scores are independently linked with heightened all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in individuals with NAFLD, especially those without diabetes.
A large-scale population study has identified a strong link between visceral fat accumulation—measured using the Metabolic Score for Visceral Fat (METS-VF)—and increased risk of both all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related death in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
NAFLD, a common liver disorder often tied to obesity and metabolic dysfunction, has emerged as a major public health concern. Since visceral fat is known to contribute to metabolic complications, researchers have turned to METS-VF, a validated, non-invasive surrogate marker for visceral adiposity, to explore its connection with long-term mortality outcomes in NAFLD patients.
In this cohort study, researchers analyzed data from 6,759 adults with NAFLD, derived from the U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) database, covering a 20-year period from 1999 to 2018. Volunteers were followed for a median of 9.3 years. Over the follow-up period, there were:
Results from multivariate Cox regression and restricted cubic spline analyses revealed a non-linear positive correlation between METS-VF and both all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR]: 5.27) and CVD mortality (HR: 4.15), with a critical threshold identified at a METS-VF value of 7.436. Notably, the connection was stronger among individuals without diabetes. The METS-VF score also illustrated superior predictive accuracy for mortality when compared to other indices linked to obesity and insulin resistance.
The area under the curve (AUC) values for 1-, 3-, 5-, and 10-year survival predictions were consistently high—ranging from 0.740 to 0.756 for all-cause mortality, and 0.746 to 0.774 for CVD mortality. These findings underscore the clinical utility of METS-VF in risk stratification and highlight the potential of targeting visceral obesity to minimize mortality risks in NAFLD-affected patients.
BMC Gastroenterology
Metabolic score for visceral fat is correlated with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality among individuals with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Chunming Xie et al.
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