BACKGROUND: To investigate associations of accelerometry-assessed sleep characteristics with liver enzymes and liver fat in adolescents and adults. METHODS: We analyzed data from four German cohorts: GINIplus and LISA (n = 1132, 14-16 years), KORA-Fit (n = 1318, 53-74 years), and KORA-MRI (n = 108, 48-67 years). Eleven accelerometry-assessed sleep characteristics captured sleep quantity, efficiency, fragmentation, latency, and timing. Liver enzymes included alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase, and gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT). Adult liver fat markers were steatotic liver disease (SLD) and metabolic dysfunction-associated SLD (MASLD, plus ≥1 cardiometabolic risk factor and without excessive alcohol intake), defined by fatty liver index (FLI, ≥60) or 3T-Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) derived proton density fat fraction (PDFF, ≥5 %). Linear and logistic regression models were evaluated. RESULTS: Time awake per hour after sleep onset (WASO/h) was associated with higher ALT both in adolescents (percentage change [95 % confidence interval, CI] per interquartile range [IQR]: 3.82 [0.86, 6.87]) and adults (3.05 [0.38, 5.78]). In adults, WASO/h was associated with increased odds of SLD-FLI (odds ratio [95 %CI] per IQR: 1.47 [1.26, 1.71]), MASLD-FLI (1.61 [1.34, 1.94]), SLD-PDFF (2.10 [1.16, 3.78]), and MASLD-PDFF (3.32 [1.47, 7.52]). Similar results were observed for poor sleep efficiency and sleep fragmentation index. However, these associations lost significance after body mass index (BMI) adjustment. Significant interactions between WASO/h and BMI groups were observed for ALT, GGT, and SLD-FLI. CONCLUSIONS: Objectively measured sleep fragmentation was associated with increased liver enzymes in adolescents and hepatic steatosis in adults, with BMI potentially mediating or modifying these associations.
FörderungenEuropean Research Council (ERC) under the European Union Federal Ministry for Environment Commission of the European Communities Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen-German Research Center for Environmental Health - German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) State of Bavaria University Hospital of Augsburg German Research Foundation Centre for Diabetes Research (DZD e. V., Neuherberg, Germany) Siemens Healthcare scholarship under the State Scholarship Fund by the China Scholarship Council Research Institute at Marien-Hospital Wesel