Yue Sun,1 Weiran Dai,2 Yuzhen Liang,3 Pijian Yang,1 Qiong Yang,1 Min Liang,4 Ning Xia1,5 1Geriatric Department of Endocrinology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Endocrinology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Endocrinology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Science and Technology Education, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Health Committee, Nanning, Guangxi, People’s Republic of China Purpose: Many studies have reported the relationship between nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and bone mineral density (BMD) among adults. However, fewer studies on this topic have been reported in adolescents. We thus conducted a meta-analysis to show the association between NAFLD and BMD in adolescents with obesity.Materials and methods: Computer retrieval was carried out via PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from inception to September 2018. Six published case–control studies that assessed the relationship between NAFLD and BMD were included.Results: The six studies included 217 obese adolescents with NAFLD and 236 controls. The meta-analysis indicated that obese children with NAFLD had a lower BMD and Z-score than the control group (weighted mean difference [WMD]–0.03, 95% CI [−0.05, –0.02], P=0.000; [WMD] –0.26, 95% CI [−0.37, –0.14], P=0.000). However, we analyzed the factor of bone mineral content, and there was no correlation between the two groups ([WMD]–55.99, 95% CI [−132.16, 20.18], P=0.150).Conclusion: Obese children with NAFLD are more susceptible to osteoporosis than children with only obesity. Because of the limitations related to the quantity and quality of the included literature, further studies are still needed. Keywords: nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, NAFLD, bone mineral density, BMD, meta-analysis, obesity, adolescent
