Hepatic steatosis: a higher risk of mortality in women

Alcohol-related liver disease and alcoholic fatty liver disease do not have the same consequences depending on gender. According to a study published in the journal Journal of Hepatologywomen who suffer from it have a higher risk of mortality than men suffering from these same pathologies.

Alcoholic fatty liver disease, a major disease

There alcoholic fatty liver disease affects more than 90% of cases of liver problems that occur in people with an alcohol use disorder, according to the MSD Manual. This pathology, often asymptomatic, results in an increase in liver volume in a third of patients.

“Fatty liver disease is a major and increasingly prevalent disease that potentially precedes many diseases, including those involving the heart, says Susan Cheng, one of the study’s authors and director of the Healthy Aging Research Institute in the Department of Cardiology at Smidt Heart Institutein a communicated.

In their work, researchers classified the different types of steatotic liver diseases according to three names:

• liver disease associated with metabolic dysfunction (MASLD);
• alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) ;
• alcoholic fatty liver disease which has recently been renamed metabolic dysfunction and alcohol-associated liver disease (MetALD).

To understand the impact of these pathologies on the risk of death, researchers analyzed data from more than 10,000 people aged at least 21 living in the United States. The information was collected between 1988 and 1994.

1,971 people – a fifth of the cohort – had steatotic liver disease and more than 75% of these adults had MetALD. Scientists observed that steatotic liver disease was approximately twice as common in men as in women. However, female patients had a greater risk of death.

Steatotic liver disease : a higher risk of death in women

In detail, female participants with MetALD had an 83% higher risk of death than men. And this was even more significant for those with ALD: 160% greater risk of mortality than men with ALD.

“These findings are particularly concerning in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which alcohol consumption and associated deaths, particularly among women, have increased“, says Alan Kwan, another author.

Public Health France recommends not exceeding two glasses of alcohol per day, not every day and, at most, ten glasses per week for consumption “at lower risk to their health.”