Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease: Global Epidemiology, Patient-Reported Outcomes, and Economic Impact.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review without systematic search or meta-analytic pooling
PubMed 42142892 · doi:10.1016/j.cld.2026.01.001
What was done
This narrative review summarizes the updated 2023 steatotic liver disease (SLD) nomenclature—classifying metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), MetALD, and alcohol-related liver disease (ALD)—along with their global prevalence, health-related quality of life (HRQL) impacts, and economic burden.
What was found
The review reports estimated global adult prevalence rates of >30% for MASLD, 2.2% to 10% for MetALD, and 1% to 3% for ALD. Category thresholds for daily alcohol intake are defined as <20 g for females / <30 g for males (MASLD), <50 g for females / <60 g for males (MetALD), and ≥50 g for females / ≥60 g for males (ALD). The presence of multiple cardiometabolic risk factors and alcohol consumption track with worsening fibrosis, cirrhosis, cancer, mortality, economic costs, and diminished HRQL.
Why it matters
It outlines the public health scale and clinical impact of steatotic liver disease under the consensus definitions, highlighting that MASLD now affects nearly a third of the adult population.
Limits
The abstract describes a narrative review rather than a systematic review or meta-analysis; no search strategy, sample sizes, or risk-of-bias assessments are reported. Summary prevalence ranges depend on heterogeneous underlying primary studies.
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