Propensity Score Matching Analysis for Alcohol-Related Liver Disease

This study aims to investigate the impact of comorbidity with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) on the survival rates and incidence of liver cancer in patients with alcohol-related liver disease (ARLD).

Patients with ARLD and those with ARLD co-morbid with CHB were included in this study and designated as the ARLD group and the ARLD + HBV group, respectively. Propensity score matching (PSM) was then employed to compare survival rates and liver cancer development between these two groups.

Among the 404 patients, 254 were in the ARLD group and 150 in the ARLD + HBV group. After propensity score matching, each group comprised 67 patients. Initially, the ARLD + HBV group exhibited lower 5-year survival rates compared to the ARLD group (51.3% vs. 70.1%, p < 0.001). However, PSM mitigated this difference, with survival rates now comparable (61.2% vs. 60.9%, p = 0.390). Notably, the ARLD + HBV group showed a higher incidence of liver-specific mortality after matching (32.6% vs. 6.2%, p = 0.018). Furthermore, although a higher proportion of patients in the ARLD + HBV group developed liver cancer post-matching, the difference was not statistically significant compared to the ARLD group (15.7% vs. 9.8%, p = 0.170).

Co-morbidity with CHB in ARLD patients elevates the risk of liver-related mortality.