Frailty ups risk of chronic liver diseases

Frailty appears to contribute to a higher risk of chronic liver diseases, suggests a study.

“Our study showed that frailty was associated with increased risks of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver-related mortality,” the researchers said. “This finding suggests that assessing frailty may help identify a high-risk population vulnerable to developing chronic liver diseases.”

A total of 4,667 MASLD, 1,636 cirrhosis, 257 liver cancer, and 646 liver-related mortality cases were identified over a median follow-up of 11.6 years.

Following multivariable adjustments, MASLD risk appeared greater among individuals with prefrailty (physical frailty: hazard ratio [HR], 1.66, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.40‒1.97; frailty index: HR, 2.01, 95 percent CI, 1.67‒2.42) and frailty (physical frailty: HR, 3.32, 95 percent CI, 2.54‒4.34; frailty index: HR, 4.54, 95 percent CI, 3.65‒5.66) than those with nonfrailty.

Results were similar for the risks of cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver-related mortality, confirmed through hospital admission records and death registries.

Moreover, frail participants had a higher likelihood of developing MASLD (defined as MRI-derived liver proton density fat fraction >5 percent) than nonfrail individuals (physical frailty: odds ratio [OR], 1.64, 95 percent CI, 1.32‒2.04; frailty index: OR, 1.48, 95 percent CI, 1.30‒1.68).

“Public health strategies should target reducing chronic liver disease risk in frail individuals,” the researchers said.

This study included 339,298 participants without prior liver diseases from the UK Biobank. Researchers assessed baseline frailty by physical frailty and the frailty index, categorizing participants as nonfrail, prefrail, or frail.