Prevalence of Obesity in Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD)

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become more common in recent years. NAFLD is thought to be the primary cause of chronic liver disorders, and it has grown to be a significant global public health concern.

The prevalence of NAFLD has been steadily rising due to changes in lifestyle and dietary patterns, making it the most common chronic liver ailment globally.

The global prevalence of NAFLD is 30.1%. Recently published an international expert consensus statement about a new definition of metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) to replace non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

The new nomenclature of MAFLD is based on the presence of steatosis in >5% of hepatocytes and the absence of excessive alcohol consumption or other causes of chronic liver disease, diagnosis of MAFLD could be established on the presence of hepatic steatosis in combination with one of the following three criteria: overweight/obesity; presence of type 2 diabetes mellitus; or evidence of metabolic dysregulation.

Metabolic dysregulation is defined as having at least 2 of the following metabolic risk abnormalities: high waist circumference, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, pre-diabetes, insulin resistance, and high plasma C-reactive protein levels.