Objectives: to establish the clinical and economic consequences (resource utilization and healthcare costs) of non-alcoholic fatty liver in the setting of the usual clinical practice in Spain.
Patients and methods: an observational, retrospective study was performed based on a review of the medical records of adult patients ≥ 18 years of age who sought medical care from 2017 to 2018. Patients were categorized into two groups according to fibrosis stage (estimation method: FIB-4): a) F0-F2; and b) F3-F4 (advanced fibrosis). Follow-up lasted one year. Primary endpoints included comorbidity, concomitant medication, resource utilization and costs. Results were analyzed using a multivariate approach with p < 0.05.
Results: a total of 8,151 patients were recruited with a mean age of 61.1 years and 51.5 % were male. By group: a) mild fibrosis n = 7,127, 87.4 %; and b) advanced fibrosis n = 1,024, 12.6 % (6.8 % with liver cirrhosis). The most common comorbidities included 63 % dyslipidemia, 52 % obesity, 52 % hypertension and 35 % diabetes. The average number of drugs used was 2.1 per patient. Patients with advanced fibrosis (F3-F4) had a higher average number of concomitant medications (2.5 vs 2.1; p < 0.001) and a higher AST/ALT ratio (1.1 vs 0.8; p < 0.001). The average cost (patient-year) for subjects with advanced fibrosis, corrected for covariates, was higher (€1,812 vs €1,128, p < 0.001). Age, morbidity, concomitant medication, fibrosis stage and total costs were higher in patients with diabetes.
Conclusions: patients with advanced fibrosis were associated with more comorbidity and concomitant medications, which resulted in higher healthcare costs for the National Health System.