The effect of vitamin K is associated with several pathological processes in fatty liver. However, the association between vitamin K levels and metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) remains unclear.
Here, we investigated the relationship between vitamin K intake and MAFLD risk by employing the American National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) including 3,571 participants.
MAFLD was defined as hepatic steatosis with one or more of the following: overweight or obesity, type 2 diabetes, or >2 other metabolic risk abnormalities. The total vitamin K was the sum of dietary and supplement dietary intake. The relationship of between log10(vitamin K) and MAFLD was investigated using survey-weighted logistic regression and stratified analysis, with or without dietary supplementation.
The MAFLD population had a lower vitamin K intake than the non-MAFLD population (
Vitamin K intake may be a protective factor for MAFLD, especially for individual not using dietary supplements. Nevertheless, more high-quality prospective studies are needed to clarify the causal relationship between them.