Current Burden of Lean Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease Among US Adults, 2017–2023

Abstract

Our study investigated the prevalence of lean steatotic liver disease (SLD) and its subcategories, including metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), metabolic dysfunction-related and alcohol-related SLD (MetALD), and alcohol-related liver disease (ALD) among lean adults in the US. Analysing data from 2965 lean adults (≥ 18 years) from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2017–2023), we found the age-adjusted prevalence of lean SLD to be 12.8%. Specifically, the prevalence was 9.3% for lean MASLD, 1.3% for MetALD and 1.0% for ALD. Notably, within the MASLD group, significant fibrosis, advanced fibrosis, and cirrhosis were observed in 5.6%, 2.4% and 2.0%, respectively.