The role of irregular eating behaviors in metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: evidence from a multicenter cross-sectional study in China

作者：Xingxing Ren, Miao Zhang, Xiaoyang Sun, Lili Zheng, Yufang Bi, Qiang Li, Lirong Sun, Fusheng Di, Yushan Xu, Dalong Zhu, Yanyan Gao, Yuqian Bao, Yao Wang, Lanjie He, Xin Gao, Jian Gao, Mingfeng Xia, Hua Bian · 发表于：Journal of Translational Medicine · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1186/s12967-025-06870-z · 被引用次数：5 · 研究领域：Dietary Effects on Health、Liver Disease Diagnosis and Treatment、Diet and metabolism studies

BACKGROUND: Irregular eating patterns, such as skipping breakfast and late dinner consumption, have been linked to adverse metabolic profiles. However, the impact of these behaviors or their combined effect on metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) remains unclear. METHODS: In this multicenter cross-sectional study, we analyzed data from 1965 adults recruited from diabetes, obesity, and metabolic disease clinics in six municipalities/provinces in China. Participants were categorized for analysis based on two irregular eating habits assessed by monthly frequency: skipping breakfast and late dinner consumption. For individual analyses, each habit was treated as a binary variable, dividing participants into two groups (e.g., skippers vs. non-skippers). For the combined analysis, these habits were aggregated to form a three-level ordinal variable, which classified participants based on the number of habits they reported: "No" (zero), "Medium" (one), or "Severe" (both). We employed logistic regression models to calculate the odds ratios (ORs) for MASLD associated with skipping breakfast, late dinner consumption, and their combination, after adjusting for key demographic, lifestyle, and metabolic factors. RESULTS: The prevalence of MASLD was higher among breakfast skippers compared to those who ate breakfast regularly (52.9% vs. 47.2%, p = 0.023), and similarly higher among late dinner eaters compared to those with regular dinner times (54.4% vs. 46.8%, p ...