According to a new study, lifestyle changes led an increase in liver illness during the first year of the Covid-19 epidemic.
Researchers from Osaka City University in Japan conducted a retrospective investigation and discovered that incidences of metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease had risen since the Covid epidemic.
The findings, published in the journal Liver International, also revealed an increase in late-night meals, alcohol use, and cigarette smoking during the pandemic – all of which are important factors in the growth in fatty liver disease.
Fatty liver disease occurs when fat builds up in the liver, causing inflammation, scarring, and liver damage.
Scarring can lead to liver failure in extreme circumstances. The disorder is known as alcoholic fatty liver disease (AFLD) in people who consume a lot of alcohol, and metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), previously known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, in those who don’t drink a lot of alcohol (NAFLD). MAFLD is linked to a higher risk of death from any cause, including cardiovascular disease.
“We discovered recurring late-night meals, or dinner 2 hours before bedtime, as an independent lifestyle predictor of developing MAFLD before the pandemic,” said Hideki Fujii, the study’s first author.
“However, during the pandemic, increased daily alcohol intake was found to be an independent predictor of illness.”
The researchers looked at health checkup data from 973 people between 2018 and 2020 and discovered that new MAFLD diagnoses increased from 22 before the Covid pandemic to 44 during the pandemic.
Researchers looked at the lifestyle behaviors of 22 MAFLD patients who had the disease prior to the pandemic, including alcohol consumption, exercise, sleep length, daily meals, and late-night meals.
Only the proportion of late-night meals was shown to be considerably greater in their analyses, indicating that it is an independent predictor of developing MAFLD.
However, researchers discovered an increase in alcohol use among the extra 44 individuals who had MAFLD during the pandemic, primarily among patients under the age of 60.
“This constitutes a significant section of the working-age population,” Fujii added, implying that as the epidemic persists, it will be necessary to constantly monitor and handle this lifestyle shift.
Also, individuals who acquired MAFLD during the pandemic had a greater number of smokers and those who ate two meals a day instead of three.
