The latest epidemiological survey: The prevalence of "non-alcoholic fatty liver disease" in Asia is about 30%, and it is increasing every year!

Introduction Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a metabolic disease of the liver, which can gradually progress from simple hepatic steatosis (NAFL) to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which increases liver fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocytes.
risk of cancer, end-stage liver failure and premature death
.

Recently, more and more studies have shown that the prevalence of NAFLD continues to increase
.

This meta-analysis aimed to identify current and recent trends in the prevalence of NAFLD globally and across regions, as well as the clinical characteristics of NAFLD patients across regions
.

Research Methods The data in the database from the establishment of the database to March 26, 2020 was systematically searched without language restrictions
.

The retrieval results were then screened and data extracted, followed by meta-regression analysis to determine trends in the prevalence of NAFLD
.

Findings The researchers retrieved 17,244 articles, including 245 eligible studies, involving 5,399,254 participants
.

The pooled global prevalence of NAFLD was 29.
8% (95% CI 28.
6-31.
1); of these, 82.
5% of the included studies used ultrasound to diagnose NAFLD, which showed a prevalence of NAFLD of 30.
6% (95% CI 29.
2-32.
0)
.

This study only performed a follow-up analysis of studies using ultrasound to diagnose NAFLD (with the exception of trend analyses in North and South America)
.

1.
NAFLD prevalence in different regions and patient subgroups Figure 1 shows the prevalence of NAFLD in different regions
.

As shown in Figure 1, South America and North America had the highest prevalence of NAFLD at 35.
7% (95%CI 34.
0-37.
5) and 35.
3% (95%CI 25.
4-45.
9), respectively
.

The prevalence of NAFLD was similar in Europe (30.
9%, 95% CI 26.
5-35.
4) and Asia (30.
5%, 95% CI 29.
0-31.
9)
.

The prevalence of NAFLD in Africa was 28.
2% (95% CI 14.
2-44.
7)
.

Figure 1 The prevalence of NAFLD in various regions As shown in Figure 2, the population with higher prevalence of NAFLD is male (38.
5%, 95%CI 36.
9-40.
0), obese population (58.
2%, 95%CI 52.
5-63.
7) and diabetes population (58.
9%, 95%CI 54.
8-63.
0)
.

Studies with mean age ≥50 years (33.
6%, 95%CI 31.
4-35.
8) and publication year ≥2016 (33.
8%, 95%CI 32.
1-35.
4) showed higher prevalence of NAFLD, but there was no difference between studies.
Significant differences were found
.

Figure 2 Prevalence of NAFLD stratified by sex, obesity, study sample size, and presence of diabetes ) was 26.
6 kg/m2, 64% were male, and 14% had diabetes
.

The mean alanine aminotransferase (ALT) overall in patients with NAFLD was 30.
6 U/L (95% CI 28.
4-32.
8)
.

There was no significant difference in the pooled mean age of NAFLD patients in different regions (P=0.
390), but there were significant differences in BMI and gender distribution
.

The mean BMI across continents showed that most patients were overweight and obese, and the mean BMI of NAFLD patients in Asia (26.
2 kg/m2) was lower than in Europe, North America and South America (29.
9, 30.
6 and 31.
0, respectively, P<0.
0001)
.

The percentage of males among Asian NAFLD patients was 64.
0%
.

3.
Trend analysis of the prevalence of NAFLD From 1991 to 2019, the trend analysis showed that the global prevalence of NAFLD increased from 21.
9% to 37.
3%, with an annual increase of 0.
7% (P<0.
0001)
.

In a subgroup analysis by region, the prevalence of NAFLD increased fastest in South America at 2.
7% per year, followed by Europe at 1.
1%
.

The prevalence of NAFLD in Asia and North America increased by 0.
9% and 0.
8% per year, respectively
.

CONCLUSIONS: Despite differences between regions, the global prevalence of NAFLD is increasing overall
.

Decision managers must work to reverse current trends by raising awareness of NAFLD and promoting a healthy life>
.

Reference: Le MH, Yeo YH, Li X, et al.
2019 Global NAFLD Prevalence: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol.
2021 Dec 7:S1542-3565(21)01280-5.
doi: 10.
1016/ j.
cgh.
2021.
12.
002.