In recognition of World Liver Day, Aventria Health Group wants to acknowledge the tremendous growing burden that chronic liver disease (CLD) and cirrhosis have on patients and their families. World Liver Day is recognized on April 19 every year to create awareness of liver-related problems and disease.
Mortality from CLD is estimated to nearly triple by 2030 (Estes et al, 2018), and the prevalence of CLD and cirrhosis has increased 1.5- to 2-fold over the past 2 decades (Beste et al, 2015; Moon et al; 2019; Orman et al, 2019; Sepanlou et al, 2020). We believe these statistics make the diagnosis and management of CLD and cirrhosis a priority for the health of Americans and they should be treated like other highly prevalent and costly conditions such as diabetes and stroke. In 2018, CLD and cirrhosis were bigger drivers of mortality than diabetes or stroke in adults 25 to 64 years of age (Murphy et al, 2021).
Unfortunately, there are perceived biases that all patients with CLD or cirrhosis are alcoholics, resulting in these patients not receiving the compassion reserved for other diseases; however, this could not be further from the truth. CLD and cirrhosis have many causes, including liver cancer, hepatitis, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), certain medications, and, yes, alcohol abuse. The underdiagnosis of these diseases, poor adherence to management guidelines, and subsequent burden should be concerns for everyone in a compassionate society.
Please join us in a call to action to improve the outcomes of patients with CLD and cirrhosis on this important World Liver Day!
You can reach me, David Guy, SVP, Oncology and Specialty Product Markets, at david.guy@aventriahealth.com or call me at 858-717-2742.
Making a difference in patient care by helping patients, providers, and payers collaborate on shared priorities
Sources:
Beste LA, Leipertz SL, Green PK, Dominitz JA, Ross D, Ioannou GN. Trends in burden of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma by underlying liver disease in US veterans, 2001-2013. Gastroenterology. 2015;149(6):1471-e18.
Estes C, Razavi H, Loomba R, Younossi Z, Sanyal AJ. Modeling the epidemic of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease demonstrates an exponential increase in burden of disease. Hepatology. 2018;67(1):123-133.
Moon AM, Singal AG, Tapper EB. Contemporary epidemiology of chronic liver disease and cirrhosis [published online ahead of print, 2019 Aug 8]. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2019;S1542-3565(19)30849-3. doi:10.1016/j.cgh.2019.07.060
Murphy SL, Xu J, Kochanek KD, Arias E, Tejada-Vera B. Deaths: final data for 2018. Nat Vital Stat Rep. 2021;69(13):1-83.
Orman ES, Roberts A, Ghabril M, et al. Trends in characteristics, mortality, and other outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed cirrhosis [published correction appears in JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(10):e1913673]. JAMA Netw Open. 2019;2(6):e196412.
Sepanlou SG, Safiri S, Bisignano C, et al. The global, regional, and national burden of cirrhosis by cause in 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2020;5(3):245-266.
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