NAFLD in the Elderly

Abstract

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is an increasingly prevalent disease globally. Current estimates are that 24% of the adult population, thus, one billion individuals worldwide, are affected. Interestingly, the prevalence of fatty liver seems to peak between 40─50 years of age in males and 60─69 years in females, often slightly decreasing in older (>70 years) cohorts. Furthermore, several risk factors for NAFLD development, such as hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and obesity are higher in older adults. The diagnosis and management strategies in older adults are sometimes challenging, and certain age-specific factors have to be taken into account by healthcare professionals. In this review, we provide an overview of considerations relevant to the management and diagnosis of NAFLD in older adults (age >65 years) and discuss the types of pharmacological interventions available for the management of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in the aging population.

Keywords:

• liver disease
• aging
• fatty liver
• NASH
• senescence
• regeneration

Disclosure

JMS reports Consultancy: Boehringer Ingelheim, BMS, Genfit, Gilead Sciences, Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Madrigal, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Nordic Bioscience, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Siemens Healthcare GmbH. Research Funding: Gilead Sciences, Boehringer Ingelheim. Speakers Bureau: Falk Foundation MSD Sharp & Dohme GmbH. JMS is partly funded by the European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 (IMI2) Joint Undertaking under grant agreement 777377: LITMUS (Liver Investigation: Testing Biomarker Utility in Steatohepatitis) and the “LiverScreen” project (grant agreement No 847989). SAA reports no conflicts of interest in this work.