Journal
DIGESTIVE DISEASES AND SCIENCES
Volume 60, Issue 11, Pages 3194-3202Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1007/s10620-015-3728-3
Keywords
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); Prevalence; Epidemiology; Gross national income (GNI) per capita; Economy
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a growing health issue around the world. This study is to investigate whether adult prevalence of NAFLD correlates with national economic status. 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. 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. 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.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available