A meta-analysis revealed a significant association between the presence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) illness and an increased likelihood of developing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Chenchen Liu et al. sought to examine the connection between H. pylori and the chance of NAFLD development.

Literature collections involved exploring databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and EMBASE. With the utilization of Stata 12.0 software, pooled odds ratios along with their corresponding 95% confidence intervals were estimated to assess the robustness of the relationship between NAFLD and H. pylori infection.

This study included a total of 28 studies, involving 68,047 individuals with NAFLD and 134,866 controls. The findings indicated a 27.5% higher risk of NAFLD development among subjects infected with H. pylori (odds ratio: 1.275, 95% confidence interval: 1.179-1.379), although there was significant variability. Notably, there was no noticeable evidence of publication bias, as indicated by both the Begg test and the funnel plot.

Subgroup analysis demonstrated that the study's design, geographical location, publication year, and diagnostic method for H. pylori and NAFLD all played a role in the significant heterogeneity observed, with a consistent positive correlation evident in all subgroup analyses. Nevertheless, a positive association between H. pylori infection and NAFLD risk was consistently observed across all subgroup analyses.

Hence, this meta-analysis revealed a 1.275-fold greater risk of developing NAFLD in the H. pylori-positive group in comparison with the H. pylori-negative group. This suggests that H. pylori is a vital risk factor for those who are susceptible to NAFLD.