LEP and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease: The OR values obtained using IVW (OR 0.6729; 95% CI 0.4907–0.9235; P = 0.0142) and WM methods (OR 0.6549; 95% CI 0.4373–0.9806; P = 0.0399) provide strong evidence that elevated levels of leptin are causally associated with a reduced risk of NAFLD, suggesting that leptin may act as a protective factor for NAFLD to some extent.