A recent systematic review and meta-analysis (NE Rich et al. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2018 16: 198: 210) provides a more comprehensive description of how ethnicity impacts the epidemiology of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in the U.S. This study identified 34 previous publications with 368,569 unique patients.

Key points:

• NAFLD prevalence in hispanic persons is higher than white persons with a pooled relative risk of 1.47; whereas compared to white persons, black persons have a pooled relative risk of 0.74
• Presence of NASH also had an ethnic predilection with a relative risk of 1.09 for hispanic persons, and 0.72 for black persons in comparison to white persons
• Approximately one in 6 of all Americans have NAFLD

My take: While hispanic persons have a higher rate of NAFLD/NASH, it is still quite high among white persons and even in black persons who have the lowest rates.

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