Hwang YC, et al. - Via involving 22,551 Korean participants (aged 18 to 78 years) in the Kangbuk Samsung Health Study cohort, researchers tested if the presence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) at baseline forecasts conversion from the metabolically healthy (MH) to the metabolically unhealthy (MU) phenotype in the future, according to body fat mass. According to results, 23.5% of MH individuals converted to the MU phenotype over a median of 5.1 years of follow-up. Independent of age, sex, BMI, lifestyle factors, individual components of metabolic syndrome, and insulin resistance, NAFLD at baseline forecast conversion. Overall, the authors concluded that NAFLD at baseline was independently linked to conversion in the future from the MH to the MU phenotype.