近年来非酒精性脂肪性肝病(NAFLD)的患病率不断攀升，成为常见的慢性肝病之一。虽然NAFLD的临床症状并不典型，却与一系列代谢疾病相关，并可进展为致命的终末期肝病。流行病学调查证实，NAFLD与肥胖密切相关；相比正常体质量人群，肥胖人群中NAFLD的患病率明显增高；众多基础研究也从分子机制角度分析了肥胖与NAFLD的相关性，证实肥胖伴随的胰岛素抵抗、游离脂肪酸增多以及炎症因子和脂肪细胞因子水平的变化等因素均可能在NAFLD的发生和发展中发挥重要作用。该文就目前NAFLD与肥胖相关性的流行病学特点及分子机制研究进展进行综述。

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the chronic liver diseases, which has a rising prevalence in recent years. Patients with NAFLD are usually asymptomatic, but it is associated with a series of metabolic diseases and may even progress to fatal end-stage liver disease. Epidemiological evidence demonstrates that NAFLD is closely related to obesity and is more common among obese individuals than those with normal body weight. Besides, many studies explore the related molecular mechanism between NAFLD and obesity, which may involve insulin resistance, increased release of free fatty acid, changes in concentrations of proinflammatory cytokines and adipocytokines. The epidemiologic characteristics and molecular mechanism about NAFLD and obesity are reviewed in this paper.