2008 to 2023 Saw Shift in Causes of Cirrhosis

TUESDAY, July 21, 2026 (HealthDay News) — There have been substantial epidemiologic shifts in the burden of cirrhosis in the United States during the past decade, according to a study published in the July issue of the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Pedro Ochoa-Allemant, M.D., from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and colleagues estimated the burden of cirrhosis using the revised steatotic liver disease (SLD) nomenclature. The analysis included 172,267 patients with incident cirrhosis from 2008 to 2023 within the Veterans Health Administration.

The researchers found that the annual prevalence of cirrhosis steadily increased from 0.84 percent in 2014 to 1.29 percent in 2023 (β = 0.047). Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) became the leading contributor to cirrhosis incidence, with the highest annual prevalence increase over time (β = 0.022). Although declines were seen in hepatitis C virus cirrhosis, it remains highly prevalent. There was a balance noted between incident MASLD cases and deaths, whereas incident metabolic and alcohol-associated liver disease and alcohol-associated liver disease cases exceeded deaths.

“Multidisciplinary strategies targeting metabolic risk factors and alcohol use are urgently needed to mitigate cirrhosis-related morbidity and mortality,” the authors write.

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