Global perspective on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis - prevalence, clinical impact, economic implications and management strategies.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review synthesizing published literature without systematic review or meta-analytic methodology
PubMed 38813821 · doi:10.1111/apt.17833
What was done
The authors conducted a literature search in PubMed using the terms NAFLD, prevalence, clinical burden, economic burden, and management strategies to review the global epidemiology, clinical outcomes, economic impact, and risk stratification approaches for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH).
What was found
NAFLD affects approximately 38% of the global adult population, with the highest prevalence reported in South America and the Middle East/North Africa and the lowest in Africa. The combined total cost of NAFLD and diabetes is projected to exceed $1.5 trillion (USD) over the next two decades. The review highlights the necessity of non-invasive risk stratification algorithms to detect high-risk NAFLD (fibrosis stage F2 or greater) within primary care and endocrinology settings.
Why it matters
This review highlights the escalating worldwide clinical and economic impact of NAFLD/NASH and supports transitioning from general population screening to targeted non-invasive risk stratification for advanced fibrosis.
Limits
This is a narrative review without explicit systematic inclusion criteria, risk of bias assessment, or quantitative meta-analysis. The abstract provides projected and summary estimates without sample sizes, search counts (n), or confidence intervals.
Cited by
- supports One-third of the global population has non-alcoholic steatohepatitis or fatty liver disease.