A simpler definition of MAFLD precisely predicts incident metabolic diseases: a 7-year cohort study

Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a novel definition proposed in 2020 with a relatively complex set of criteria. Thus, simplified criteria that are more applicable are required. This study aimed to develop a simplified set of criteria for identifying MAFLD and predicting MAFLD-related metabolic diseases.

We developed a simplified set of metabolic syndrome-based criteria for MAFLD, and compared the performance of the simplified criteria with that of the original criteria in predicting MAFLD-related metabolic diseases in a 7-year follow-up.

In the 7-year cohort, a total of 13,786 participants, including 3372 (24.5%) with fatty liver, were enrolled at baseline. Of the 3372 participants with fatty liver, 3199 (94.7%) met the MAFLD-original criteria, 2733 (81.0%) met the simplified criteria, and 164 (4.9%) were metabolic healthy and met neither of the criteria. During 13,612 person-years of follow-up, 431 (16.0%) fatty liver individuals newly developed T2DM, with an incidence rate of 31.7 per 1000 person-years. Participants who met the simplified criteria had a higher risk of incident T2DM than those who met the original criteria. Similar results were observed for incident hypertension, and incident carotid atherosclerotic plaque.

The MAFLD-simplified criteria are an optimized risk stratification tool for predicting metabolic diseases in fatty liver individuals.