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Prevalence of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Economy

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Abstract

Background

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a growing health issue around the world.

Aim

This study is to investigate whether adult prevalence of NAFLD correlates with national economic status.

Methods

Literature search on PubMed database was conducted to identify eligible records fully published before September 2014. Gross national income (GNI) per capita was chosen to evaluate national economic status. Pearson coefficient, linear regression, and unpaired t test were performed in the statistical analyses.

Results

Twenty-one population-based surveys (seven in East Asia, five in South Asia, three in Middle East, and six in Europe) were included. The pooled prevalence of NAFLD was 24.24 %, and the global prevalence was positively correlated with GNI per capita (r = 0.4782, P = 0.0283). Europe witnessed a higher prevalence (28.04 %) than Middle East (12.95 %, P = 0.0092) and East Asia (19.24 %, P = 0.0083). Male presented a higher prevalence than female (P = 0.019), especially in Europe (P = 0.0132) and in Caucasians (P = 0.0383). Furthermore, male prevalence and rural prevalence individually were correlated with economic status (r = 0.5725, P = 0.0257 and r = 0.7389, P = 0.0060). Lastly, the urban (23.93 %) witnessed a higher prevalence than the rural or the urban + rural (12.65 %, P = 0.0141) in the countries of GNI per capita <$10,000.

Conclusions

This study suggested that countries with higher economic status tend to present a higher prevalence of NAFLD. It is believed to provide a distinctive epidemiologic perspective to global situation of NAFLD.

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Author notes

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, No. 79, Qingchun Road, Hangzhou, 310003, China

      Jin-Zhou Zhu, Yi-Ning Dai, Yu-Ming Wang, Chao-Hui Yu & You-Ming Li

    2. Department of Statistics, Columbian College of Arts and Science, The George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA

      Qin-Yi Zhou

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    Correspondence to You-Ming Li.

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    Jin-Zhou Zhu and Yi-Ning Dai have contributed equally to the work.

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    Zhu, JZ., Dai, YN., Wang, YM. et al. Prevalence of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Economy. Dig Dis Sci 60, 3194–3202 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-015-3728-3

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